The Lizards of the Rue Morgue
by Gary Merchant
Summary: The Doctor and Jamie arrive in Paris 1902, but not everything is as it seems.
1. Prologue

EXPLANATORY NOTE: This is yet another three author collaboration, following our success with TIME AND TIME AGAIN.  
  
PROLOGUE  
  
The Doctor and Jamie stood looking at each other through the transparent central column of the console as it rose and fell. They had been watching the motion of the time rotor for what seemed like forever and neither had spoken for a long time. Jamie was the first to break the silence.  
  
"I'll miss Victoria," he said.  
  
"Yes, I will too," said the Doctor.  
  
The two men were silent again and then the time rotor stopped with that familiar clunking sound. The Doctor placed his hand on the door switch and looked at Jamie. "Well, shall we see what's out there?"  
  
"Aye, I could do with some cheering up," replied Jamie. The Doctor flicked the switch to open the doors of the TARDIS and the two men made their way out.  
  
Jamie was out first and started to examine their surroundings while the Doctor locked the TARDIS door. "Where are we, Doctor?" asked the young Scotsman.  
  
The Doctor looked around him. They were in the middle of a large metropolitan park, while all around them men and women in Edwardian dress moved sedately about as they enjoyed the spring air. In the distance the Doctor could make out the unmistakable shape of the Eiffel Tower.  
  
"Well, Jamie, by the look of our surroundings I would imagine we are on Earth, and even more than that I would say we are in Paris. And judging by the date of the newspaper that man on the bench is reading, it is the 24th of April 1902."  
  
Jamie looked over at the man on the bench reading the paper. He wondered at how good the Doctor's eyesight must be to be able to read the date from this distance. Jamie strained to look more carefully so that he could read the date himself and confirm it. Just then the man put down his paper and folded it under his arm as he got up and casually began to continue his springtime walk in Jamie and the Doctor's direction.  
  
"Oh!" said Jamie.  
  
"Oh dear," said the Doctor.  
  
The man doffed his hat at the Doctor and Jamie has he walked past and they all exchanged a polite bonjour. They watched the man walk by and then looked at each other in bemusement.  
  
"Doctor?"  
  
"Yes Jamie."  
  
"That man - he had the head of a lizard."  
  
"Yes, I noticed that."  
  
"And nobody else seems at all bothered by that."  
  
"No they don't, do they?"  
  
"No Doctor, they do not." Jamie watched as the lizard man passed by other citizens, who seemed not to take the slightest notice, other than to exchange greetings. "What have we landed ourselves in this time?"  
  
The Doctor pondered. "I rather think that my first assumptions were wrong," he replied. "In fact, I don't think we're on Earth at all." He looked around in admiration. "But this is an exact replica of how Paris would look in 1902. Rather fascinating, don't you think?"  
  
"Aye, I mean no." Jamie was concerned. "Look, are we in any danger here?"  
  
"Oh, I don't think so," the Doctor smiled. "No, as long as we keep to ourselves, we're in no trouble at all."  
  
The Doctor's smile was replace by a frown as a gendarme approached the two friends. "Excuse me, citizens. May I see your papers?"  
  
The Doctor started fumbling through the myriad pockets of his coat, pulling out all sorts of oddments. "Here take this, Jamie." He handed him a recorder, tangled up with string and rubber bands. "And these," passing him a bag of jelly babies. "Gosh, I won't want those for a while."  
  
He had just started to extract his Sonic Screwdriver, when there was an almighty explosion at the base of the Eiffel Tower. All heads spun round to the direction of the explosion, the Lizard/Gendarme ran off in a very strange gait, taking several small steps very fast, then two steps very slowly before repeating the process, towards the Tower.  
  
Nearly everyone else seemed rooted to the spot, as they gazed up in awe, as the Tower wavered and creaked, clouds of dust and debris billowing up from one of the four legs of the Tower, the centre of the explosion. Above, the sound of creaking, groaning metal there began, slowly at first, as screams of terror, emanated from the public areas at all the levels of the Tower.  
  
"Doctor!" A cry of earnest warning escaped from Jamie's mouth as he started to turn, pushing the Doctor before him, away from the Tower.  
  
"Yes I know, Jamie! It's going to come down on us and the TARDIS!"  
  
To be continued . . . 


	2. Parisian Walkways

PARISIAN WALKWAYS  
  
The Doctor and Jamie stood frozen in terror, clinging on to each other for comfort. The Tower was swaying as though it was going to fall on top of them and then suddenly it swung in the opposite direction. It looked like it was swaying like a skittle as the smoke began to billow out from its base even more profusely.  
  
The screams on their side of the Tower came to a stop and screams started to come from the other side. The Doctor was puzzling over why it had not already collapsed on top of them when he noticed the expression on the faces of the people around him. Both the people with Lizard faces and those with human faces were smiling and cheering as well as screaming when the Tower swung their way.  
  
There was a sudden thundering crash and crunch from the Tower as it began to pull away from the ground like a 1960s NASA launch. Giant streaks of flame poured out from the tower's base as it rose ever faster toward the sky.  
  
When the Tower had finally disappeared into the clouds and all the screaming and cheering had stopped, the lizard Gendarme returned to the Doctor and Jamie as a human Gendarme approached from the other direction.  
  
"Jacques, come here," said the lizard Gendarme.  
  
The human Gendarme moved beside his colleague. "What is it, Grzzzaruckk?"  
  
The lizard pointed to the TARDIS. "These two gentlemen have illegally parked this transmat device, but after seeing that I don't feel like booking them."  
  
"Yes, it was a splendid launch," Jacques agreed. "And that has to be the first one without any fatalities on the ground in years." The Doctor and Jamie stood silently watching the two Gendarmes with some bemusement as they discussed what to do with them.  
  
"Ok, I'll let them off just this once," Grzzzaruckk decided. "Ok Gentlemen, you can go about your business."  
  
"Just don't forget that next time you'll have to pay the full penalty," warned Jacques.  
  
"The full penalty, what's that?" asked Jamie.  
  
"Oh, it's not too bad. I only bite off one of your hands on the first offence," said Grzzzaruckk.  
  
Jamie stared open mouthed as the two gendarmes strode away. "Doctor," he said finally. "You've brought me to some strange places and times, but this one beats the lot."  
  
"Yes, it does rather," The Doctor admitted. "It's as though humans and aliens live together in harmony on this world. I wonder where we are, exactly?"  
  
Jamie spied a discarded newspaper on the ground. He picked it up. "Mebbe this will tell us," he suggested.  
  
"Good thinking, Jamie," the Doctor complimented him. "Now, let's see." he thumbed through the newspaper, page by page. "Ah, here we are." He read the piece out. "The Parisian sector of Aerht will today witness the launch of the first unmanned space probe, Eiffel 1. Professors Warner and Zorrrrackk are confident that, despite previous failures, this launch will prove to be successful."  
  
"Aye, well that explains the rocket we saw," Jamie noted. "But what does it all mean?"  
  
The Doctor was mildly surprised. "But Jamie, don't you see? This planet is like Earth in many ways, but much more forward thinking." He began to warm to his theory. "The Edwardians were already looking beyond the confines of their own planet at the beginning of the twentieth century. But here on Aerht, they've developed much further, and more successfully too. I wouldn't be surprised if they put a man on their moon by their equivalent of 1920." The Doctor smiled at the thought. "Just think of it, Jamie. We've arrived at the birth of a new era for these people. Just think how much they have to look forward to."  
  
Jamie was so caught up in the Doctor's reverie, that he couldn't help nodding in agreement. Then a thought struck him. "You say that this planet is called Aerht?"  
  
"That's what it says in the newspaper."  
  
"Well, if ye turn the letters around, it reads Earth," Jamie declared. "And another thing. If this is such a perfect copy of Earth in the past, how did it get that way?"  
  
"Yes, that's been bothering me too," the Doctor admitted. "I think we need some answers."  
  
"But where from?"  
  
"Well, there must be a public library somewhere." He led Jamie away from the town square. "I think we need to brush up on some recent history."  
  
Their progress was monitored by a shadowy figure. "Such a fascinating intellect," the figure observed. "I shall have to keep a close eye on you, Doctor."  
  
*****  
  
After obtaining some directions from a trio of lizard people enjoying their coffee in the sunshine, at one of the many roadside cafes, the Doctor and Jamie found themselves on the steps of the Bibliotque de Montparnasse. They couldn't help but notice, as they had walked the mile and a half to the library, that on virtually every other corner, there had been a strange phosphorescent globe, about two feet in diameter, mounted on a nine foot high column. The globes all seemed to sparkle and emit crackling sparks as they passed. They had stopped and looked up at the first globe they had come upon. Jamie had asked the obvious question and the Doctor had just stared up the globe before looking nowhere in particular, his eyes rolling this way and that as he stroked his chin, mumbling indecipherably, before his usual, "Come along, Jamie!" with the Scot non the wiser. Nonetheless, it wasn't long before stopped at the next globe. Having had the same reaction each time they passed a globe, by the time they had reached the fourth one the Doctor had a distinctly worried look on his face, but was exasperating Jamie by keeping his thoughts to himself. So there on the steps of the library, Jamie asked again. "Are ye no gonna tell me about those globe things? I can see you know something!" "Well Jamie, I think that we might be in a bit of bother," he replied, "but I'm not sure. All is supposedly well here, but I am certain it is not. I want to have a look at some old news reports in their archives. It should confirm what I am concerned about." "Yes, but what, Doctor?" "Not just now, Jamie. I want you to do something for me." He was always eager to help. "Of course, but I dinna ken much about this place." "It's alright, Jamie," the Doctor assured him. "While I go inside to search their archive, I want you to stay here and watch out for a tall darkish looking man. He's been following us since we left the TARDIS. He's wearing a black cape and carrying a black walking stick with a large silver handle, shaped like our lizard friends here," indicating the passers by. "If he comes in here, don't try to stop him. Just follow him and see where he goes. But only if he comes in. I think he will find me." "But Doctor, what if...?" "No, Jamie, I will be alright," he insisted. "I think he's as curious about me as I am about him. If he comes, I will see him and know you are somewhere nearby. Try not to let him know you are watching him. We should learn something here." *****  
  
Jamie paced up and down the steps of the library watching people and lizards walking past. Occasionally one of them would ascend the steps and enter the building through the same door the Doctor had gone through.  
  
He had been there for over an hour and had finally sat on the steps with his elbows resting on his knees when a figure approached him from across the street matching exactly the Doctor's description.  
  
"Well, Mr McCrimmon. What a pleasure to see you again," said a man at the bottom of the steps.  
  
Jamie sat there with his mouth open in surprise. This was the last person he expected to see here. He looked different from how he remembered him, but it was definitely the same man. "What are ye doing here?" Jamie exclaimed.  
  
"Patience, Jamie. All will soon become clear when I have spoken to the Doctor. Oh, and one further piece of advice - if you are going to sit at an elevated point of such a large set of steps while wearing a kilt, you may find it advisable to keep your knees together."  
  
Jamie jumped up and turned away. "Shall we go in?" said the man, stroking his greying beard.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Jamie and the man walked side by side, down the rows of books in the library until they came to a reading area. Sitting amongst the citizens using the library was the Doctor with a huge pile of newspapers around him. While Jamie stood back the man went up to the Doctor and tapped him on the shoulder.  
  
The Doctor swung around in surprise and was spluttering out his indignation at the interruption when he saw the man's face and suddenly fell silent. He looked the man up and down. He was much older and more whiskery than he remembered.  
  
"Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, what are you doing here?"  
  
He smiled. "It's good to see you too, Doctor. And it's Brigadier - retired."  
  
Jamie shared the Doctor's stunned expression. "But how can ye be here, and looking so much older?"  
  
"Jamie, that was hardly tactful, now was it?" the Doctor scolded him. "Still, I had been wondering the same thing myself." The Doctor could still hardly believe that this was the same man he and Jamie had met in the London Underground, battling against the Great Intelligence and its robot servants, the Yeti.  
  
"It's a bit of a long story," the Brigadier replied, "involving one of your future selves. Suffice to say, I now live here with my new wife, in the relative peace and quiet of Aerht."  
  
"I see," the Doctor realised. He knew better than to ask questions regarding his own future, so chose not to pursue the subject. "But I take it that this isn't a social call, eh Alistair?"  
  
He shrugged. "You know me, Doctor. One never really retires. When it comes to military matters, I help out in an advisory capacity every so often."  
  
"And I take it that something is 'up', as the saying goes?"  
  
Lethbridge Stewart pulled up a chair and joined the Doctor, Jamie doing the same. "Yes, something is definitely 'up', Doctor. I assume you both saw the launch of Eiffel 1 today?"  
  
"Aye, it was quite a spectacle, eh Doctor?"  
  
"Indeed it was, Jamie." The Doctor raised his hand for silence as the Brigadier continued.  
  
"The thing is, the scientific community have been severely divided on this - reaching for the stars, that sort of thing. One chap in particular has spoken out on many occasions."  
  
"For or against?" the Doctor asked.  
  
"Oh, very much against. The launch of Eiffel 1 was the first successful launch of an unmanned space probe."  
  
"Yes, we gleaned as much from the newspapers."  
  
"But what the papers haven't said is that previous attempts to launch a probe have met with sabotage. That's why I've been called in to investigate," the Brigadier explained.  
  
"You mean there could be more trouble?" Jamie suggested.  
  
"Exactly, Jamie," the Brigadier replied. "Doctor, I wonder if you."  
  
"Oh, I'd be delighted to help," the Doctor answered enthusiastically. "You mentioned you had a suspect already?"  
  
"That's right. Goes by the name of Zzorrann. Officially, there's nothing on him. But that doesn't stop him from being in the wrong place at the wrong time."  
  
"Interesting." The Doctor thought for a moment. "Jamie, you stay here and find out as much as you can on this Zzorrann. If he's a noted member of the community there's bound to be something on him."  
  
Jamie nodded. "Alright, Doctor. Then what?"  
  
"Best if you hail some transport to the Halls of Residence - my living quarters," the Brigadier answered. "That's where the Doctor and I will be."  
  
Their plans agreed, the three friends set off on their respective tasks. None of them saw a silent figure, blending into the shadows. "So, this military man is a friend of the Doctor." Sharp eyes followed them. "It changes nothing, but I can see I will need to tread more carefully."  
  
To be continued. 


	3. Death In Paris

DEATH IN PARIS  
  
By the time Jamie had completed his task, such that he could and managed to find his way to the Hall of Residences, dusk had fallen. It was a beautiful Parisian moonlit night, except the moon was blue!  
  
When he approached the entrance, a porter stopped Jamie and told him he was expected and directed him to where the Doctor and the Brigadier were sat, deep in conversation, in a huge book lined room. "Ah McCrimmon, any success?"  
  
"Ah, yes, Jamie!" a cloud of thought still hanging over the Doctor's face. "What can you tell us?"  
  
"Och, not a lot Doctor. This Zzorrann or whatever his name is, he's definitely into something. His name keeps popping up in those papers. Sometimes on the front page, but mostly in smaller articles inside. Nothing much, small business ventures. All sorts, mainly scientific. All over the place. He always seems to be a spokesman, especially when there's an accident at a factory belonging to one of these businesses."  
  
"What sort of accidents, Jamie?"  
  
"Well, they all seem to have happened at night. Always a man on his own. Always found dead. And the oth. . ."  
  
"At night, Jamie? How did they die?"  
  
"It dinna say exactly, just suspicious, but I want to tell you . . ."  
  
"I can probably find out more about the deaths for you," the Brigadier offered.  
  
"Awe Doctor, will ye no listen to me?"  
  
The Doctor felt like a tennis ball, bouncing from Jamie, to the Brigadier, then back again. "Yes Jamie, what is it?"  
  
"When this Zzorrann does appear on the front of these papers, he's always with very important people. King this, or President that and Prime Minister of somewhere else - and even a Queen! He seems to be well in with them. He must be important himself, but he seems like a nobody, otherwise."  
  
"Mmmm, yes Jamie. Now that is very interesting. Alistair, I'll need to know more about these deaths. Who exactly were these people? What sort of factories were they found in - I take it they were factories of some sort, Jamie?"  
  
"Och aye, Doctor, but I couldna understand what they were. There were awfully long words, I didna understand them."  
  
"Right, gentlemen. I'd better start off some lines of enquiry. I'll see you later." as the Brigadier rose, to leave, "Leave word with Pierre, at the entrance, he's a good man." tapping his nose knowingly, "Tell him where you set off to, if you get any inspiration. I know you will. But I must know where you are - you know, just in case . . ."  
  
With that he strode off, leaving them both deep in thought.  
  
*****  
  
Rather than hail a carriage, Lethbridge Stewart chose to walk the relatively short distance to the coroner's office. For one thing, he welcomed the exercise, and it gave him the chance to reflect on recent events.  
  
When he had seen the TARDIS in the town square, he knew the Doctor couldn't be far away. But what he hadn't expected was to see the one he first knew from 'The London Event'. And when the Doctor had referred to him as Colonel, he quickly realised that, as far as the Doctor was concerned, they were still yet to meet again in London during that business with Tobias Vaughan and the Cybermen.  
  
Over the years, the Doctor, in his various incarnations, had warned the Brigadier about the dangers of time travel and foreknowledge of future events. Now those words came back to him, realising that he would have to be careful not to let slip any information regarding the problems to come during the Doctor's exile on Earth, and his time at UNIT.  
  
By now he had arrived at his destination. Once inside, he was immediately recognised. "Brigadier. Good to see you."  
  
"And you, Doctor Shjarp," he replied. "Though I'm afraid I'm here on business." He explained the suspicious deaths, and the need to find more information.  
  
Shjarp nodded. "The records should be readily available," he mused. "Come with me, and we can check them over."  
  
*****  
  
"It's very worrying," the Doctor said, after much deliberation. "The fact that these deaths occur at night."  
  
"Perhaps the killer just didn't want to be seen," Jamie suggested.  
  
"Either that, or he's the type of person who can only work at night."  
  
Jamie knew when the Doctor was onto something. "What is it, Doctor? I can see something's troubling you."  
  
"It's a lot of things, Jamie." He spread his arms in helplessness. "The energy in those globes on the street, and now these deaths. I have a nasty feeling they're connected in some way, but I can't work it out. Not yet."  
  
"And there's something else, isn't there?"  
  
The Doctor seemed surprised. "Whatever do you mean, Jamie?"  
  
"Well, when the Brigadier turned up at the library, I'm thinking that he wasn't who you were expecting. Am I right?"  
  
"Yes, I'm afraid so," came the answer. "I had expected to meet someone altogether different."  
  
Jamie was tempted to press the matter further, but he could see how dejected the Doctor looked. Instead he gave what he hoped was a convincing yawn. "Aye, well I'm off t'mae bed. Let's hope the Brigadier finds something."  
  
*****  
  
"Have you seen this?" Shjarp joined Lethbridge Stewart as they read the findings of one of the reported deaths.  
  
"My God!" he swore. "According to the report, this poor fellow died from natural causes - but in his twenties?"  
  
"It's the same with these other two," the Brigadier confirmed. "Marcus, could I see the bodies? I assume the families haven't arranged for burial yet?"  
  
"No, they'll still be in the mortuary." The two men walked down a flight of stairs to the lower floors.  
  
Presently they were watching the attendant pull open the locker for the first body. When he pulled back the covering sheet, he turned away in disgust. "It's not a pretty sight."  
  
They looked down at the corpse. The skin was emaciated and dry as parchment. "Good Lord," the Brigadier gasped, swallowing hard. "Are the others like this?" The attendant nodded.  
  
A thought occurred. "Marcus, can you do a cross check to see if any other deaths have occurred in these same circumstances."  
  
"Yes," Shjarp replied. "Now that we know what to look for, it should be straightforward enough." He regarded his friend of many years. "Alistair, what's going on?"  
  
"Just playing a hunch, for now," Lethbridge Stewart replied.  
  
*****  
  
Jamie stirred in his bed, waking to the sound of footsteps outside. With a deep sigh, he rose from his slumber and opened the bedroom door. In the connecting room, the Doctor was pacing the floor, a sombre look on his face.  
  
In all the time he had known him, Jamie had never seen the Doctor like this before. Usually he could deal with any threat he could recognise, but this was different. The young Scot could see just how troubled his friend was. "Would it help to talk about it, Doctor?"  
  
He continued his pacing. "Something is very wrong, Jamie. And right at this moment, there's nothing I can do about it." He stared at the highlander. "Don't ask me how I know, but something is going to happen tonight. Something terrible."  
  
*****  
  
"Alistair, your hunch was right." Shjarp had returned from his work and handed over the results for Lethbridge Stewart to see. "Those recent deaths were just the tip of the iceberg."  
  
The Brigadier scanned the figures, a grave look on his face. "It rather looks as though we have a murder epidemic on our hands."  
  
*****  
  
Outside, in the city's capital, a tall figure stepped from the shadows. "At last. The night has come. Now, I can feed." 


	4. Night and Day

NIGHT AND DAY  
  
The figure was tall, had a noticeable limp and was obviously female. She seemed to bob up and down as she ambled along the darkened streets. When another figure stepped up to her she came to a shuddering halt, recognising him. "Zzorrann, you are early. I was not expecting you to be here so soon."  
  
"Well as you always said, the early bird catches the worm," he replied.  
  
Zzorrann stood nearly a foot taller than the woman and his features were a mix of human and reptilian, a signpost of his mixed parentage. He was dressed in a sharp, black Edwardian suit with a scarlet cravat, while a mane of long dark hair reached down his back as far as his knees.  
  
The woman nodded and reached out and brushed her wizened hand against Zzorrann's scaly face. "Is that what you want to do, catch me?"  
  
"No," he replied. "But you need to control your nocturnal activities. They are attracting attention."  
  
"You mean the three humans?" asked the woman. Zzorrann nodded. "Do not worry about them. I am familiar with the two newcomers, although they do not know it."  
  
"Mother, are you sure about that?"  
  
"Yes. I have been watching them very carefully and I understand men, even Time Lords. I have not outlived seven human and alien husbands without acquiring some skills."  
  
"But you will be careful tonight and not feed," implored Zzorrann.  
  
"No, I will feed and I will not let them stop me," she declared. "He owes me compensation for abandoning me so selfishly."  
  
Then Zzorran understood. "You mean that man, he's the Doctor? The one you have been telling me about all these years?"  
  
"Yes, the very same. Look at me and what I have become. It is his fault and he will pay for it here before he even comes to know who I am."  
  
The man saw a need for caution. "Don't you think it's dangerous to meddle with the timeline and interact with him before he has even met you?"  
  
"I don't care," the woman decided. "I am in the mood for recklessness."  
  
Zzorrann bent forward and kissed his mother on the cheek. Despite the hastening of her deformity her features were unmistakable. What a tragedy, he thought to himself, that this is what had become of his mother, a once famous beauty.  
  
*****  
  
The following morning saw the Brigadier return to his rooms at the Halls of Residence, only to find the Brigadier and Jamie missing. A word from Pierre informed him of their movements, and he quickly headed off after them.  
  
He was relieved to find them soon after, on one of the main streets, apparently in urgent discussion. "Ah, Doctor. Found you at last."  
  
"Brigadier," the Doctor asked. "What can you tell me about these globes?" He indicated those dotted around the streets and boulevards.  
  
He couldn't for the life of him see the importance, but nonetheless . . . "They've been here for many years. Certainly, they were installed when I first arrived here years ago."  
  
The Doctor was insistent. "But you're still a relative newcomer here," he pointed out. "So what strikes you as unusual about them?"  
  
"Well . . ." the Brigadier paused, unsure what to look for. After all, the globes were more or less a permanent fixture in Paris, their fluorescence giving off much need light in the dark hours, and . . . "Oh, I see what you're getting at," he realised. "Why are they lit during the daytime?"  
  
"Exactly," agreed the Doctor. "Whatever the power is within these globes, is it necessary for both day and night?"  
  
Lethbridge Stewart smiled. "It's no great mystery, Doctor. The light from these globes helps to maintain the various floral displays. As I understand it, they provide the correct temperatures for the different types of foliage you see all around you. Hence the continuous light."  
  
"I see." But the Doctor was not to be calmed. "But where does the power come from? After all, for such an undertaking the cost must be astronomical. And is that all it's used for?"  
  
Jamie caught the note of concern. "What sort of power d'ye think it is, Doctor?"  
  
"Definitely alien," he replied. "And I mean alien to this world." He sighed. "At least we have one piece to fit the puzzle."  
  
"Well, here are a few more pieces," the Brigadier remarked, handling across the files from the previous evening. "Makes for unpleasant reading, I'm afraid."  
  
The Doctor scanned the contents of each file. "Yes, I see what you mean. Is it possible to see the bodies?"  
  
"That's what I came to tell you," Lethbridge Stewart explained. "There was another death last night."  
  
The Doctor thought for a moment. "Tell me, Alistair, these deaths, are they . . . normal . . . or lizard humanoids?"  
  
"That's another aspect that I noticed, Doctor. They are all, as you put it, normal people. Not one is a lizard humanoid." The Brigadier was disturbed by this realisation. "It's odd that I've never thought of them in that way."  
  
"Yes, that's also odd," The Doctor fumbled through his pockets for something, then giving up and stroking his chin. "How long have these lizard humanoids lived here?"  
  
"I don't really know Doctor. They were here when we arrived." He hesitated. "Do you know, now I actually think of it, I don't remember when that was."  
  
"D'ye think these lizard people have something to do with this, Doctor?"  
  
Yes, Jamie, maybe not directly. These globes too, but what worries me more are the deaths. How did they die, Alistair?"  
  
That's what I was coming to, Doctor. They all died from a loss of blood. All their blood in fact. Not a drop left in their bodies. These autopsy chappies say they've never come across this before. They're keeping quiet about it because they don't want to start a scare. All the bodies seemed unmarked, apart from, well, you know - except for last night's. Body was in a bit of a state this time. Almost ripped apart, but still bloodless."  
  
"Oh dear, I was afraid of that," a black cloud seeming to come over the Doctor. He shuffled away from them, deep in thought. Jamie and the Brigadier glanced at each other, both knowing by experience that what the Doctor was pondering, could affect them for the rest of their lives.  
  
Close to them, one of the globe-topped columns seemed to be crackling more than normal. The colours within it seemed to subtly change several times before reverting back to their normal phosphorescent glow.  
  
The Doctor had seemed to drift towards it, still in his apparent reverie. He stumbled, falling against the column. As he fell, his hand that had been rummaging about in his deep pocket, emerged and shot out, as if to stop his stumble against the column, and came to rest, momentarily under the lip of one of the rings that decorated it, before dashing away from the column with the agility of an Olympic sprinter.  
  
At the same time there was a flash of light, as inexplicably, the globe exploded. As all around, turned in amazement at this occurrence, the Doctor hid a grin of satisfaction beneath an enormous embroidered handkerchief, as he proceeded to blow his nose. "Well, I thinks that's gone and done it," he said, smiling.  
  
Jamie and the Brigadier stood looking up at the remnants of the shattered globe.  
  
Then the three men stood looking at each other as they began to feel an absence. It was the absence of something that they had previously not even been aware of. They had been able to perceive a very faint vibration everywhere they had been but now, under the post with the broken globe, they could not feel it anymore.  
  
Then they began to notice the real changes. Every part of the street that had been illuminated by the broken globe had changed. It was the same pavement and the same walls but they were different. They were older and more decayed. In the parts of the street that were still covered by intact globes the streets were still clear and apparently new.  
  
The Doctor turned to speak to the Brigadier and froze before he could open his mouth. In the absence of the globe's flourescent glow the Brigadier had changed too. He was markedly older, his skin draped over his skull like an old leather rag and his eyes were empty dark hollows.  
  
"What is it Doctor?" said the Brigadier, his voice suddenly ancient and raspy.  
  
"Al . . . Alistair, can you see it? Can you see yourself?" asked the Doctor.  
  
The Brigadier had only seen the change in his surroundings, but only with the Doctor's prompting did he stop to look down at his now skeletal hands. "Doctor, what has happened to me?"  
  
"Oh dear.oh my giddy aunt" mumbled the Doctor. "Jamie, Brigadier, I think my curiosity has made me do something rather foolish."  
  
He grabbed the Brigadier by the arm, dragging him into the area of the street still covered by the other globes. Here, under their glow, the Brig was back to his old self. Again the three men looked at each other in puzzlement. This puzzlement soon turned in to horror when they noticed that the other globes on the street were, one by one, beginning to go out. Wherever this happened the streets and people became the decayed versions of themselves like they had been under the broken globe and the Brigadier.  
  
Everywhere people were screaming whenever the saw the ghostly sight of each other and themselves. And the globes continued to go out all over the city and the screaming got ever louder.  
  
"Oh no! What have I done?" the Doctor cried out.  
  
To be continued . . . 


	5. Memories Revisited

MEMORIES REVISITED  
  
She remembered - so long ago, but the memories of that day were so clear. The day that everything changed. Her husband had long since died in battle. She had mourned him for months on end, for in spite of everything, she had truly loved him. And now that part of her life was lost. She had continued in her role as a Warrior Queen, having been coached in those duties for when that time would eventually come. And for many years she had served her kingdom well.  
  
And then, the day came when she heard a sound she thought never to hear again. Like an ancient engine coming to life, becoming louder as the shape of a London Police Box solidified before her. A shape she recognised as the TARDIS. He had come back for her.  
  
But when the doors opened, there was no one there to greet her - no errant Time Lord in a patchwork frock coat, nor in cricketing whites. No one.  
  
Only when she had stepped inside did she feel the coldness hit her. This was not how it should be, she realised. But as she turned to leave, the doors had already closed, blocking her exit. Repeated attempts to open them using the control lever she recognised had proved useless.  
  
And as the time rotor began its rise and fall, she knew that she was trapped. And she would never again return to her kingdom - so long ago, but she still remembered.  
  
Her reverie was broken by a commotion outside. The door burst open and Zzorrann burst in. "Mother! Everything is falling! Decay is striking us down!"  
  
"No! It cannot be!" She rose from her makeshift throne. "He has done this! And he shall live to regret his actions!"  
  
*****  
  
Everywhere, the story was the same - the once pristine streets of Paris were now showing their age, and decaying at a remarkable rate. The Doctor looked around for some form of sanctuary. "The TARDIS!" he suddenly remembered. "Jamie, help me with the Brigadier."  
  
It began as a run, but as they drew closer to the ship their steps faltered, until even Jamie could go on no longer. "Oh no, this is all my fault. Unless - wait there, both of you." The Doctor sprinted the last few yards to the TARDIS, diving inside as soon as the key was in the lock.  
  
Jamie sank to his knees, staring. Surely he wouldn't leave them?  
  
Then a circle of power emanated from the TARDIS, halting the decay, and then reversing the process in a localised area. Gradually, Jamie and the Brigadier began to recover their strength. The Doctor hurried out from the ship, quickly checking on his friends, then herding them into the TARDIS.  
  
Once inside the relative calm of the console room, the Doctor mopped his brow. "Well, that was a near thing." Activating the scanner, they watched as the desecration played itself out. "Thank heaven I was able to extend the TARDIS force field. Otherwise we'd never have made it."  
  
"Aye, but while we're safe in here, what about all those people?" Jamie chimed in.  
  
"Yes, and what exactly is going on?" demanded the Brigadier. "What did you do out there?"  
  
"Oh crumbs," the Doctor groaned. "I didn't realise it at the time, but those globes, as well as providing light for the city and climate for the flowers, also kept the people in a form of stasis."  
  
"Do you mean suspended animation?"  
  
"Of a sort, yes," he continued. "Only instead of freezing their bodies, their ageing was held in check." The Doctor pulled out his handkerchief, and opened it out to reveal a tiny microcircuit. "When I placed this against that column, the idea was to generate an opposite signal to what it was used to - a kind of feedback. What I didn't expect was a chain reaction effect, shutting down all the globes."  
  
"And because of your fooling around," Jamie stated bitterly, "those people out there are dead."  
  
"Oh no, I wouldn't say that," the Doctor insisted. "Aged yes, but not dead. As for the society itself, it was an illusion." He pointed toward the picture on the scanner. "See how the buildings are changing, becoming less than perfect."  
  
"But this is incredible, Doctor," Lethbridge Stewart exclaimed. "It's all so real. And I've lived here for years."  
  
"Interesting." The Doctor fixed him with a steely glare. "How many years exactly?"  
  
"Well, I . . ." he paused. "I can't seem to remember."  
  
"Just as I thought," the Doctor confirmed. "You've been held under a form of mind conditioning, remembering only what you're supposed to." He continued to stare into the Brigadier's eyes.  
  
To the former UNIT officer, it was as though the Doctor's eyes were boring into him. And he could not turn away from that gaze. "Brigadier, you can hear only my voice. Is that clear?"  
  
"Your voice." The reply came out as a mumble.  
  
"Good. Now, when I count to three, the mind control over you will be gone, and you will remember everything you had previously forgotten. One - two - three!"  
  
The Brigadier shook his head, as though to clear it, then he looked up. "I remember now. I'd retired from UNIT, and got a job as a teacher. After few hairy moments at the beginning, everything settled down to a normal routine.  
  
"Then one day - it was morning, as I recall - I was driving along the country lanes, when I blacked out."  
  
"But you didn't crash?" the Doctor prompted.  
  
"No," he recalled. "The next thing I remember, I was here on Aerht. In a facsimile of Paris in 1902." Then he realised. "I must have transported here in some way!"  
  
"But why? For what purpose?"  
  
"That, I don't know. Nothing to do with the conditioning I went through - I just wasn't told."  
  
"And then they - whoever they are - planted in your mind this sort of fake identity, which you believed and accepted."  
  
"Yes." Lethbridge Stewart's voice faltered for a moment. "Of all the . . . to take someone out of a life they knew, and implant a new one in its place - it's like a violation. It's barbaric!"  
  
The Doctor and Jamie waited, allowing the Brigadier time to collect his thoughts. His own thoughts, for the first time in a long time. "If you want to talk about this later . . .?" Lethbridge Stewart gave a slight nod at the Doctor's kind offer.  
  
"So what happens now?" Jamie wondered. "Do we get out of here?"  
  
"No, Jamie. I don't think so," he answered. "After all, we still have to account for those deaths the Brigadier told us about earlier."  
  
The Brigadier pulled up short on this. "Hold on a minute, Doctor. Do you mean to say that life out there will continue as before?"  
  
"Not exactly, no," agreed the Doctor. "The people you knew are still there. It's just that your perceptions of them will be a little different." He pondered for a brief moment. "There is still a terrible mystery to solve. And someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to bring you here, and to stage all of this." He opened the doors. "Shall we go?"  
  
******  
  
Zzorrann sat at the corner of the main table of the grand council chamber of Paris. The Council was made up of the elected representatives of the various wards of the city. Twenty men and women of human, lizard and mixed race sat around the table, discussing events.  
  
Mayor Guilliam, a ruddy faced human with silver hair, sat at the head of the table with Zzorrann sitting quietly behind him.  
  
"I have been assured that the globes are being restored and the people's memories of recent events are being erased from their minds as we speak," he informed the Council.  
  
"And what of these reports of another power source temporarily maintaining a field close to the launch site?" asked one of the councillors.  
  
"We are investigating this and we are convinced that we will be able to resolve the situation," Guilliam assured him.  
  
"Why can we not tell people the truth about what is happening?" protested another councillor.  
  
Zzorrann placed his hand on the Mayor's shoulder and the room fell silent. The meeting was at an end.  
  
******  
  
Later Mayor Guilliam sat at his desk with his old friend Herzz sitting opposite him. Herzz was from an ancient and noble lizard family. House Greengill, as the Humans had come to call it. They had been involved in the planet's politics 1000 years before the humans had first started arriving. Guilliam trusted Herzz with his life.  
  
"Herzz my old friend, have you ever heard of the Medici?" asked Guilliam.  
  
"No."  
  
"They were a family of bankers in the ancient human city of Florence. Florence was a republic with a ruling council of elected citizens just like our Paris," Guilliam explained. "The Medici were one of a dozen rich banking families in the city. Eventually they became richer than everyone else and this made them so powerful that they were able to rule the city like princes while maintaining the facade of being just ordinary citizens and bankers".  
  
"This seems familiar," Herzz noted.  
  
"Yes just like the Medici in Florence, Zzorrann and his ancestors have ruled this city for 750 years while posing as humble bank managers and businessmen. It was his family that first brought us humans here, for some purpose I cannot yet understand, and still they sit there managing the people like banknotes in their bank". Guilliam sighed. "And just like the Medici who married into foreign royalty to ally themselves with other powers and to bolster their authority, Zzorrann's father kidnapped Queen Perpugilliam and married her to expand his influence with the human planets and to humanise his heir."  
  
"I see the parallels," said Herzz. "We have the humble banker Zzorrann sitting at the edge of our council and directing our decisions, just like his father."  
  
The human and the lizard sat looking at each other in resignation.  
  
"So shall we fight back and reclaim our City?" asked Guilliam.  
  
"No, just like our own ancestors, we will fall in line to protect out own power and position," said Herzz.  
  
They nodded in grim acceptance.  
  
"We should just be thankful that his mother is still not in charge, like she was when Zzorrann was still too young to manage things after his father's death," Guilliam observed.  
  
"Yes. But I will never forget the day Zzorrann's father died," said Herzz.  
  
"No, neither will I. Strangely," Guilliam added, "it is difficult to forget the image of a small human woman getting up in the middle of a council meeting and ripping off her Lizard husband's head with her bare hands."  
  
******  
  
It had been a marriage of convenience, nothing more. But still she had borne a son, and she loved him. But the pregnancy itself had unforeseen complications.  
  
As well as being one of the first humans to sire a child of mixed race, she had also undergone a transformation of sorts. The physicians never fully understood the cause - whether it was a biological reaction to the pregnancy, or the act of lovemaking between two different species, no one was sure. But over the course of time, her body began to mutate. It was barely noticeable at first, the initial change being a gradual increase of strength, to an extent unknown in a female. When she began to recognise the full horror of what would occur, she began to despise her husband all the more. He had done this to her, and he would suffer in turn.  
  
That was when, during the Council Meeting, she stood up and calmly ripped his head apart. The Council had been so shocked that they barely noticed when she took her leave of the meeting, supposedly never to return. The rumour was that she had killed herself in remorse for her actions. Instead, she had retreated into the darkness, as the changes to her body became more pronounced.  
  
But she was still watchful of events. And now she sat quietly, listening to her son's report of the meeting. "So the emergency has been contained?"  
  
"Yes, mother," Zzorrann assured her. "There are some repairs still to be competed, but the people will remember nothing of what happened."  
  
"That is good," she smiled. "Yet I sense there is an unease about you."  
  
He knew he could not hide anything from her. The bond they shared made sure of that. "There is growing unrest within the Council," he informed her.  
  
"Which will be calmed, in time. What else?"  
  
"The military man - this Brigadier." Zzorrann hesitated. "His conditioning has been broken."  
  
"Ah." She rose from her throne. "The Doctor - I should have expected as much. But it changes nothing," she assured him. "Our plan continues. And soon, even the Doctor will be powerless against me."  
  
"Why are you so confident that his meddling will make our hold more powerful?" asked Zzorrann.  
  
"Because I know the Doctor," she replied. "He is used to toppling dictatorships that rule through fear and violence. I was by his side a dozen times when he did such things. But our rule here is different. We have no titles and no secret police. We rely on our subjects' own greed and self-interest to maintain our position."  
  
"But the mind control, won't that draw his attention?"  
  
"Indeed it will. But it is the Council that controls the technology, and they are elected precisely to manage that responsibility, to hold back decay and free people of the burdens of fear and mistrust. Our tools of bribery and old-fashioned corruption are buried deep in the souls of human and lizard alike." She smiled at the irony. "The Doctor can destroy a mind control device, but he cannot destroy the failings of the human soul."  
  
Zzorrann nodded. "So what do we do now?"  
  
"We wait and watch the Doctor follow the false lead of the globes and mind control. He will follow them to the Council and if we are lucky he may topple them. Then when they are replaced and he has gone, we will simply step out of the shadows again and wrap out purse strings around the neck of the new Council."  
  
"So nothing will change?"  
  
"Oh yes, it will. The memory of the chaos his revolution will create will linger in people's minds and the new Council will no longer have the mind control to wipe people memories. They will be frightened and will be desperate for security - and we will still be here to provide it". And she smiled at the thought.  
  
********  
  
The Doctor, Jamie and the Brigadier were standing in the main hall of a villa on the outskirts of the city. The floor was polished marble and the intricately modelled ceiling was nearly twenty feet above their heads.  
  
"So this is your home here," said the Doctor.  
  
The old soldier nodded and then resumed his story of his time on this world. He remembered when he first arrived here and how the authorities had apologised for kidnapping him. Kidnapping was apparently an ancient tradition amongst the lizard race. Males did not get engaged, they simply kidnapped a bride.  
  
Long ago the lizards had become aware of the ever expanding earth empire and other humanoid power blocks. One day an old man had arrived in a Police Box. When he heard this story the Brigadier had recognised this as the Doctor. The old man had said that he had lived many lives, but that he had now almost reached the end of his time and was waiting for a quiet place to die.  
  
The lizards had tended him in his final days and in return he had told them about the humans. Then silently he died. The lizards buried him with great ceremony, but did not fulfil their promise to him to bury with his Blue Box.  
  
Instead they spend generations studying it until they could pilot it themselves. They used it to kidnap resourceful humans from all over time and space and then they brought them back here to integrate into lizard society by breeding with them. Only in the last few generations had this finally resulted in the human/lizard hybrids.  
  
All this was so that when the human worlds finally made contact the lizards' world would be ready to meet them on their own terms as a sister race.  
  
Then about twenty years ago, one of the city's leading bankers had used the Blue Box to capture an alien Queen as his bride. She had eventually consented to the match and had become the first human woman to have a hybrid child. But the birth had taken its toll and she disappeared from public life. Zzorrann was her son.  
  
It was then that the city had begun to decay and that the humans had begun to rot. None of them ever died, they just became more rotten. But science came up with a solution. The globes to hold off the decay and the mind control to fend off the fear and memories of the monsters they had briefly become.  
  
When the decay had begun the Brigadier had, like everybody else, been given a choice of death or submitting to regenerative power of the globes and the City Council's mind control. For the sake of his new wife and children he had submitted.  
  
The Doctor stood beside the Brigadier and took in all that he had heard. "This leaves two very important questions. What caused the sudden decay in the human population and the fabric of the city? And if my future self does come here to die where is his TARDIS now?" the Doctor wondered.  
  
"They didn't know the answer to the first question," said the Brigadier, "but the kidnapped Queen made the city promise never to kidnap humans or use the ship again."  
  
"So what happened to it?" asked Jamie.  
  
"It just disappeared," said another voice from the corner of the room.  
  
The Doctor and Jamie turned to see another human/lizard hybrid with long red hair entering the hall.  
  
"Ha. Doctor, Jamie - let me introduce my eldest son, Alistair Jnr."  
  
*****  
  
She waited until Zzorrann had left the room. When he had gone she climbed up from her chair and hobbled over to a curtain covering an alcove in the room. She pulled back the curtain to reveal a dusty Police Box and an open coffin with a decayed body inside it. She brushed her fingers across the surface of the TARDIS and then went up to the body in the coffin. Then she let her fingers run around the hollow eye sockets.  
  
"Ah, Doctor. Are you ready to have a visit from you past self? Not many people get to pray at their own grave. But you always were exceptional."  
  
To be continued . . . 


	6. Family Connections

FAMILY CONNECTIONS  
  
"I'll say this for ye, Brigadier," Jamie said. "You're full of surprises."  
  
"Yes, indeed," agreed the Doctor, staring in rapt amazement at the Brigadier's son. "So, you're Alistair Jnr, eh? How old are you, then?"  
  
"Well, in human terms," he replied, "I'm coming up to my eighteenth year. I hope this hasn't come as too much of a shock."  
  
"Oh no," the Doctor insisted. "No, not at all. It's just . . . well, it's a bit of a shock, really." And they all laughed at the strangeness of this situation. "You dark horse, Brigadier!"  
  
"Thank you for the compliment, Doctor," he smiled.  
  
"Well now," the Doctor hushed them all. "This is all very jolly, but Alistair, you were saying something about the TARDIS."  
  
He shrugged. "Well, just that it disappeared."  
  
"But where did it disappear from? Where was it last seen?"  
  
Alistair thought back. "In the Great Hall of the Council Chambers. That's where it was kept before."  
  
"I know the place," the Brigadier recalled. "It's a hotchpotch of counsellors and politicians, presided over by Mayor Guilliam."  
  
"Guilliam?" Jamie exclaimed. "I know that name."  
  
The Doctor was on the alert. "Where from, Jamie?"  
  
"When I was at the library, checking on stuff to do with that Zzorrann character. Guilliam's name came up almost every time."  
  
"Well, well, well." The Doctor considered this new development. "So we have a connection between the Mayor and our mysterious Mr Zzorrann. Very interesting."  
  
At last some of the pieces were falling into place. "So, what's our next move, Doctor?" Lethbridge Stewart asked.  
  
"Well, I must confess I've never met a Mayor before," he replied. "I think now would be a good time to call on our Mr Guilliam and see what he has to say."  
  
*****  
  
"Doctor, all I can say is that I have no idea what you're getting at."  
  
Mayor Guilliam regarded the two visitors with some concern. The Brigadier he already knew from previous meetings, but this Doctor was an unknown.  
  
The Doctor carried on. "Mr Guilliam, do you deny that you know Zzorrann?"  
  
"Far from it," he answered. "He is one of our most respected bankers, and as such, has an interest in the affairs of state, according to the charter."  
  
"I see." The Doctor appeared satisfied, and Guilliam visibly relaxed. "So how do you explain these deaths?"  
  
Guilliam was thrown. "Deaths? I don't know . . ."  
  
"Sir," the Brigadier spoke up. "Please don't insult our intelligence. There have been three reported killings - four after last night. Indications are that the victims died from severe blood loss. That is to say, their blood was completely drained from their bodies."  
  
Guilliam sank down in his chair. "Oh no." The colour drained from his face. "If what you say is correct . . ." The look on their faces confirmed it for him. ". . . then it means that the rumours are indeed true. Our former Queen has returned."  
  
*****  
  
Many years ago when he had first joined the Council as a junior member, the youthful Guilliam had been proud to attend his first Council meeting. He remembered sitting in the position of the most junior member directly opposite the then Mayor Robert Tailor. Tailor had been a senior General in the US Civil War before the lizards had brought him here, but had soon adjusted to his new life and was by this time a very eminent citizen.  
  
At that meeting the young child Zzorrann had sat between his mother, the ex Queen, and his father the famous lizard banker Zzorr. Officially the family were just ordinary citizens who had been given the honour of sitting in on the Council meeting. In reality the council was just a rubber stamp to follow their will.  
  
Zzorrann had sat silently watching the meeting unfold as the council members spoke and debated while keeping a close watch on Zzorr's reactions to ensure they were not straying from what he would want them to say. They had been discussing a proposal to start re using the TARDIS to bring new humans to the world. Everyone knew that it was what Zzorr wanted them to do, and in the end that is exactly what they would do. But they put on a good show of having a debate and were about to vote.  
  
Zzorr had clicked his tongue in satisfaction as he realised he was going to get his way, when his wife stood up and started shouting about how monstrous it was to kidnap people from their lives. Zzorr was just about to stand and silence her when without warning she grabbed hold of his head and ripped it clean off his shoulders. His body fell to the ground and she threw the head on to the council table.  
  
Tailor stood up and made a show of calling the guards. It was clear that he was going to have her arrested. She however had different ideas. She grabbed him by the hair and dragged him close to her. Then like a beast she sunk her teeth deep into his throat. The Council sat silently watching Tailor's body shrivel as the blood flowed from him into the Queen.  
  
As the former Mayor's bloodless body fell to the ground the Council invisibly transferred their allegiance form the dead Zzorr to his widow. Young Zzorrann sat frozen in fear and the Council voted not to use the TARDIS again, in line with her wishes.  
  
******  
  
The Brigadier let out a breath. "Good Lord."  
  
"So that's how all the killings began," the Doctor surmised.  
  
Guilliam nodded. "She had been human once, but the pregnancy saw a physical and metabolic change in her. Our physicians still have no clear reason for it."  
  
"Well, this ties in with what you told me earlier, Alistair," the Doctor said. "But why keep something of this magnitude secret?"  
  
"Because it would not have been in the public interest." They turned to see Herzz enter from a side door. "Would you, Brigadier, have allowed such a scandal to be known on Earth?"  
  
"I suppose not," Lethbridge Stewart conceded.  
  
"But look at how restrictive your charter is shown to be," the Doctor remonstrated. "While you continue with your precious mind control, your people are stagnating."  
  
Lethbridge Stewart noted the looks of shock on the faces of Guilliam and Herzz. "Now, steady on, Doctor."  
  
"No, I will not be silent!" The Doctor's voice had a hard edge to it which rarely surfaced, but on this occasion, he felt it necessary. "In all my travels, I have seen dictatorships in many forms, and in some instances I have been involved in bringing them down. And here, on Aerht, the situation is no different. From all that I have seen and heard, for years you have been responsible for kidnapping humans from all of time and space, so that they might sucessfully integrate with other species. Am I right?"  
  
"It has always been that way," Guilliam began.  
  
"Then it must stop!" The Doctor paused for breath before continuing. "You have conditioned their minds so that they will accept the new lives you have prepared for them. But what you have also done is to remove a vital part of their thought processes - free will."  
  
"Free will?" The phrase was unheard of.  
  
"Yes. Those people you selected should be allowed to choose, rather than have the choice made for them."  
  
Guilliam was amazed at such a proposal. "But if we were to allow such a thing, they might choose to leave."  
  
"And then our charter would be in ruins," Herzz stated. "Our government would fall."  
  
"But don't you see?" the Doctor persisted. "As things stand now, you govern a population who know no different. They have no will to challenge, because everything seems perfect in their eyes." He moderated his tone, not wishing to overreach himself. "Gentlemen, your Council has stagnated, allowing apathy and laziness to set in."  
  
Guilliam and Herzz took in the Doctor's words, at last accepting the façade behind what they had believed was right and true. "But what can we do?" Herzz wondered.  
  
The Brigadier stepped in. "Perhaps democracy is the key." They looked at him, uncertain. "On Earth, our government is elected not by its peers, but by the people, for the people."  
  
Guilliam shook his head. "I understand the concept, but we could not allow that to happen here," he insisted. "Given our current situation, we would surely lose."  
  
"Then you must put forward a strong case for yourselves," the Brigadier suggested. "Go out into the city. Meet the people, let them see that you are sincere."  
  
"In the meantime," the Doctor offered, "perhaps you could endorse that sincerity by ending the mind conditioning - not at once," he added quickly, "but gradually."  
  
Guilliam looked at Herzz, who nodded his agreement. "You have both given us much to consider. We accept the merits of your argument, but this will have to be agreed before a full Council meeting."  
  
"Meanwhile," Lethbridge Stewart decided, "we need to track down Zzorran."  
  
"Yes," the Doctor agreed. "Although a rather think it's his mother, this Queen, who holds the all the cards."  
  
The Brigadier smiled. "The last time I had to deal with someone's mother . . . sorry, Doctor. Ignore me, I 'm just rambling."  
  
"Indeed?" A look passed between them. "Well, we can't stand here. Things to do."  
  
"Just one more thing." The Brigadier addressed Guilliam and Herzz. "This Queen. What was her name?"  
  
"She was never addressed by name," Guilliam replied. "But when she was first brought to our world, she was known as the Perpugilliam of Brown."  
  
The Brigadier felt as though someone had just walked over his grave. 


	7. Reality Bites

REALITY BITES  
  
Lethbridge Stewart had never met Perpugilliam Brown but he had heard of her. When the Doctor had been a little Scottish man he had told the Brigadier about how the Time Lords had forced him to leave her behind on the planet of the mentors. The Brigadier looked at the Doctor and knew that he could not let slip that he recognised her name.  
  
The Doctor and The Brigadier said their goodbyes to Guilliam and Herzz and left the office. They met Jamie and Alistair Jnr outside and decided to go back to the Brigadier's home to mull over events.  
  
******  
  
Guilliam and Herzz stood silently looking at each other when a hidden door in the bookcase behind Guilliam's desk opened and Zzorrann stepped out. "You will ignore that speculation about my mother," he ordered.  
  
Guilliam and Herzz nodded their agreement.  
  
"You performed well," continued Zzorrann. "The Doctor thinks his little revolution is running along happily. The fool forgets that the Council is elected already; electing a new council will not change a thing. The mind conditioning is under the Council's control and they are elected by the people. Therefore democracy is in action."  
  
"But the Council never does anything without your consent," Guilliam noted.  
  
"Exactly," Zzorrann replied. "The Doctor can play whatever games he likes with the constitution. In the end, when the dust has settled, any government needs money to operate and when they need money they come to me and my bank."  
  
"So all this is irrelevant?" asked Herzz.  
  
"Yes, pander to his ego. Let him think he is helping democracy." Zzorrann smiled. "I'd even be happy for him to bring the mind control to an end because in the end it is money that has always been the route of my families power and without the control conflict will spread and people will need to borrow more from me to protect themselves in uncertain times. It's all good for me."  
  
"Yes, Mr Zzorrann. But what should we do about his pursuit of the Queen?" Guilliam asked.  
  
"Nothing. Let him find her. She is perfectly capable of dealing with him herself. In fact, you could say she is finding the prospect rather appetising," said Zzorrann.  
  
With that the meeting was at an end.  
  
******  
  
It was evening and the Doctor and Jamie were sitting on a balcony of the Brigadier's Villa. Their bellies were full and they were satisfied with their day's work.  
  
"Doctor, do ye think we can sort things out here?" asked Jamie.  
  
"Oh I'm sure we will Jamie. With the Brigadier to help us we can sort out the council and then find this bloodsucking Queen," replied the Doctor.  
  
"Then we can be on our way?"  
  
"Well almost. There is still something that is bothering me. What exactly caused the sudden decay in the condition of the city and the human population that the globes were created to battle. It's all very strange."  
  
Silently a figure with long red hair watched them from the shadows. It turned away and entered the villa. When it found a quiet spot it picked up a small communicator from a table and put it to it's ear and began to speak.  
  
"Hello Zzorrann, it's Alistair Jnr. I have something to tell you," he said.  
  
*****  
  
The Doctor and the Brigadier were deep in conversation, leaving Jamie at a loose end. After a few moments of kicking his heels, he deciding he might as well leave them to it, and walked from the balcony in the direction of the kitchen, looking for something else to eat.  
  
If he hadn't chosen to step quietly he might not have picked up the whispered conversation coming from the hallway. "Yes, they're still determined." Jamie froze against the wall, listening. Was that Alistair Jnr? "Alright, I'll meet you later."  
  
Jamie waited a few seconds, and then resumed his path to the kitchen, passing Alistair on the way. They exchanged a brief nod before going their separate ways.  
  
Jamie grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and bit into it. But now hunger gave way to suspicion. He knew there was something not quite right, but rather than seek a confrontation, for the moment he chose to bide his time.  
  
*****  
  
Guilliam stared at the latest government directive for a full ten minutes. But his eyes never took in a single word.  
  
In his younger days he had been a vibrant member of the Council, as had Herzz and other contemporaries of their day. And the Chambers had been full of lively banter and discussion. But that was before Zzarr had joined the Council. A new age had been ushered in, and it was not one that anyone had been altogether happy with. True, there was new prosperity, but it came at a price. And the previously relaxed form of debate was replaced with that of a single vote system. And the only member to wield the power of veto was Zzorr, a privilege that was later passed down to his son.  
  
Those who remained in the Council no longer had any real power to change anything, unless Zzorrann allowed it. It had been that way for many years. Guilliam remembered the Doctor's words - yes, the government had stagnated. But there was nothing anyone could do. There was now an inherent weakness within the Council that Guilliam despised.  
  
Because he recognised that same weakness in himself.  
  
*****  
  
"It's so infuriating!"  
  
The Brigadier looked up. "What is?"  
  
The Doctor searched for a way to express his thoughts. "It's as though I'm missing something so obvious, and yet I can't see it."  
  
Lethbridge Stewart sympathised with his old friend's frustration. They had been discussing the question of the globes, and the sudden decay in the town centre for so long, that they both felt as if they were going around in circles. "Let's go over it again," he suggested. "Slowly and methodically."  
  
"Oh, very well."  
  
"Now, you placed that circuit against the column . . ."  
  
"Yes, but before that, do you remember how the light in that globe began to fluctuate?"  
  
"That's right," the Brigadier remembered. "And the close you got to it, the worse it became."  
  
"And that had to be because of the circuit I was holding."  
  
"Yes, what was that circuit anyway, Doctor?"  
  
He shrugged. "Nothing important. Just something I was repairing from the TARDIS. Now, where were we? Ah yes, so the globe shattered . . ."  
  
"And there was that faint vibration all around us," the Brigadier recalled, "which we didn't notice until after it had stopped." He paused, deep in thought. "It's a rum do, I don't mind admitting." He looked across toward the Doctor, and saw something like realisation pass over his face. "Doctor, what is it?"  
  
"Oh my word." His voice held a note of fear. "Brigadier, I think the answer has been staring us in the face all the time."  
  
"Why? What do you mean?"  
  
The Doctor shot up from his chair. "Follow me. I'll explain on the way."  
  
They passed Alistair Jnr on their way out. "Hey, where are you two going?" he asked. His father silently shrugged his shoulders, before closing the door behind him.  
  
Alistair turned to Jamie. "What do you make of that?"  
  
The Scot gave an equally unhelpful shrug. "That's the Doctor for ye," he replied. "Once he gets something in his head, ye just have to tag along."  
  
*****  
  
Herzz entered Guilliam's office to find his friend slumped in his chair, despondent. He felt much the same himself, and the two friends knew each other well enough to recognise the other's mood. "There really was nothing we could do," he said.  
  
Guilliam laughed, with no humour. "Back to the same order of things," he lamented. "But does that make it right, Herzz?"  
  
He sat down in the chair facing the Mayor. "Do you doubt the validity of Zzorrann's argument?"  
  
"Do you doubt the validity of the case put forward by the Brigadier and his friend, the Doctor?" Guilliam countered.  
  
Now Herzz expressed his own concerns. "I am uncertain. There are valid points for both sides, but . . ."  
  
"Are you happy, Herzz?"  
  
The question took him by surprise. "Define happiness for me, and I will answer."  
  
"Very well." Guilliam chose his words. "When you retire for bed each night, do you look forward to the beginning of a new day? And do you enjoy the day that comes?"  
  
"In that context, I would answer no," Herzz replied. "No, I am not happy."  
  
"But if we dared to act on the Doctor's suggestion . . . ?"  
  
Herzz nodded. "There would be doubt instead of certainty, disruption instead of a known routine - but there would also be challenges to meet, obstacles to overcome."  
  
Guilliam sat back in his chair. "So we understand the choices . . ."  
  
". . . But do we have the courage?" Herzz wondered.  
  
The two men, one human, the other lizard, had much to think about.  
  
*****  
  
"So, how long have you travelled with the Doctor?" Alistair Jnr asked.  
  
"Och, a wee while," Jamie replied. They had been talking for some time since the Doctor and the Brigadier had made their hasty exit. Alistair had offered Jamie a beer, but he had politely declined. The occasional glances to the clock on the wall did not go unnoticed.  
  
Alistair gazed forlornly at the empty bottle. "Sure I can't tempt you?" Jamie shook his head. "Well, I think I'll have another."  
  
He waited until Alistair was out of sight. Then Jamie leapt from his chair, across the width of the living room towards the hallway. Alistair had half opened the front door, when the Scot dived past him, slamming it shut and blocking his way. "And where d'ye think you're goin?"  
  
"I . . . we ran out of beer," Alistair stammered. "I was just going out to the all night store to buy some more?"  
  
"Oh aye?" Jamie was no fool. "Nothing to do with your private chat, then?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
Jamie held up the small communicator. "I mean this wee thing. Now, what's going on, Alistair?"  
  
He sighed. "Oh Jamie, why did you and the Doctor have to mess everything up?" He tried to push past, but the highlander stood firm. "Now, I don't want things to turn nasty."  
  
Jamie took a few steps forward. "Well, if it's a fight ye'r lookin' for . . ."  
  
*****  
  
By the time they had arrived in the town square, the Brigadier was out of breath. "Really Doctor, I'm getting far too old for all this running around," he complained.  
  
The Doctor shushed him. "Do you feel it, Alistair? That faint vibration?"  
  
"Well, yes. Though it's only since yesterday I realised it was there at all. Does it mean anything?"  
  
"Unfortunately, yes," the Doctor replied. "It's the same vibration one recognises from a TARDIS. In fact, the same vibration from my own TARDIS."  
  
"What?" The Brigadier was astounded. "But that's impossible. These buildings, for example."  
  
"All a brilliant shade of white," came the reply. "Not a speck of dirt or grime to be found."  
  
"Like the console room," Lethbridge Stewart conceded. "But what about the globes?"  
  
"That was something I should have seen before. Remember when I extended the TARDIS force field to save us from the effects of decay?" The Brigadier nodded. "That's when I should have seen it.  
  
"These globes are a giant force field, extending across the city. And we're not outside at all - we're inside. Inside a giant TARDIS!"  
  
*****  
  
By the time they had returned to the villa, the Brigadier was bursting with questions, but they both fell silent as they saw the upturned furniture and broken ornaments. "Oh dear," said the Doctor. "I don't like the look of this at all."  
  
Jamie was standing amongst the shattered ruins of the Brigadier's villa. His shirt and kilt were torn near to shreds, while his face and hands were smeared with blood. He was standing over the body of Alistair Jnr, which lay battered on the floor.  
  
"Jamie, what have you done?" cried the Doctor.  
  
The Brigadier stood silent as the shock of the sight before him sunk in.  
  
"It . . . wasn't. I didn't . . ." Jamie could not finish his sentence.  
  
Moving more quickly than his age would suggest, the Brigadier flung himself at the young Scot and swung his cane at him with as much might as he could muster. The silver handle of the cane connected with Jamie's head and he fell to the ground unconscious.  
  
"Doctor we have been friends for many years but your boy has murdered my son. I suggest you get him and yourself out of my home immediately before I do something I will regret." The Brigadier was spitting with rage. "Mark my words, if I ever see the two of you again I will tear you both apart with my own hands!"  
  
"But Alistair," the Doctor protested.  
  
"Go, now!" he bellowed.  
  
******  
  
Across the street from the Brigadier's villa, a female figure stood in the shadows holding onto the still beating heart of Alistair Jnr. She watched the Doctor and the Brigadier arrive, then heard the commotion and shouting inside. Finally she saw the Doctor dragging the unconscious Jamie over his shoulder out of the villa, while the Brigadier stood in the doorway, shouting abuse.  
  
"Oh Doctor, you always were so entertaining," remarked Queen Perpugilliam. 


	8. Recriminations and Admissions

RECRIMINATIONS AND ADMISSIONS  
  
Professor Halla sat at his desk and looked out of the huge picture window at the landscape that surrounded the large scientific centre where he was based. Here atop the tallest mountain on the planet he could see across the black dirt plains of Aerht to the City Republic of Paris. When he swung around and looked out of the equally massive window on the opposite side of his office he could see the city walls of Kharack, the capital of the lands ruled by Duke Zarkahn.  
  
Duke Zarkahn was famous across the planet as a formidable politician, a matchless soldier, lizard patriot and merciless bully. He was also highly suspicious of scientists and humans. Which is why his impending visit to this research station to meet a human scientist like Professor Halla all the more unsettling.  
  
The station had been established 100 years ago by the Parisian Council to use the knowledge of their kidnap victims to advance their technological power. It had worked as, in Human terms, Parisian society had moved from a medieval stage to an almost Edwardian culture with 22nd century technology.  
  
Of course the city had not always been called Paris, but the reason for the change had never been explained to the human newcomers.  
  
Duke Zarkahn's lands however clung purposefully to their indigenous ways. They could not however help themselves from picking up the odd technological breakthrough. And they were getting more tolerant of humans. They even let one of Halla's assistants visit to arrange this meeting and they only ate one of his legs. Which, considering what they did to the last human to visit Kharack, was very generous of them.  
  
There was a short buzz from the intercom.  
  
"Professor Halla, can you please come to the reception lounge," requested the voice. "The Duke has arrived."  
  
******  
  
Professor Halla entered the lounge and bowed respectfully at the Duke. The Duke was a mighty Lizard who stood nearly seven-foot tall and was dressed in silks and a velvet cape smothered in jewels. He carried a mighty sword in one hand and wore the bleached skull of a human on a chain around his neck.  
  
"Your Grace, welcome to Ycarnos Station. Queen Perpugilliam has asked me to welcome you and to say that she will arrive shortly with the final components for the machine," said Halla.  
  
The Duke nodded. He spoke back to the Professor but in his own lizard tongue, as he would not pollute his mouth with the human language. His voice sounded like a wrecked car being dragged over a cattle grate. His interpreter stepped forward to relay his master's response.  
  
"My Master spits on your grave and pays tribute to your mistress and her success in obtaining the heads of two Time Lords at such short notice," he translated.  
  
"Thank you very much, I'm sure," Halla replied, perhaps a little too quickly.  
  
*****  
  
Jamie lay on one of the bunk beds in the TARDIS bedroom. It had been the only place the Doctor could bring him, despite the long journey - longer, when he realised how heavy Jamie could be.  
  
The Doctor still couldn't take it all in - in the space of two minutes, he and the Brigadier had gone from being the best of friends to the worst of enemies. And with Jamie still unconscious, there was nothing else he could do except wait.  
  
*****  
  
Lethbridge Stewart wept. He cried for the tragic death of his son, and the end of a long friendship with the Doctor. How could it have come to this?  
  
It was ironic that, during his time at UNIT, he had had to inform countless families of the deaths of their loved ones. That was one part of the job that had never got any easier, however many times he went through it. The real tragedy was that he could never tell those families how their sons or husbands had died. How could you explain to a mother that her son wasn't coming home because he'd been shot down by a Dalek, or vaporised by an Ogron? And now, the Brigadier had some understanding of what they had gone through, for he was in the same kind of situation.  
  
Why did McCrimmon kill Alistair Jnr, and in such a brutal way? Just a few hours before, they had been laughing and joking. It didn't make sense. All right, so the boy could handle himself in a tight corner - he'd proved as much during that business with the Yeti, all those years ago. So what could prompt the lad to turn into a crazed killer? No matter how he viewed it, the Brigadier couldn't find an answer.  
  
*****  
  
"Oh, ma head."  
  
The Doctor regarded Jamie with his sternest look. "So, you're awake at last. About time too."  
  
"Where are we?"  
  
"In the TARDIS." Jamie could tell that the Doctor was in no mood for small talk. And he couldn't really blame him. "Now then, Jamie. What happened?"  
  
The Scot struggled to a sitting position. "Doctor, ye don't really think that . . ."  
  
"I don't know what to think!" The Doctor let his frustrations boil over. "I find you standing over young Alistair's body, the Brigadier accuses you of murder and throws us both out of his house. So no, I really don't know what to think!"  
  
"But it wasn't me," Jamie protested.  
  
"Then who was it?" The Doctor exclaimed. "Tell me everything you know."  
  
Jamie was about to scratch his head, then felt the large bump he'd incurred, and changed his mind. "Well, I overheard Alistair talking to someone."  
  
"Who? When?"  
  
"I don't know who," he replied, "but it was after lunch. He had this communicator thing, and Alistair agreed to meet whoever it was. So later, after you and the Brigadier went out, he tried to make a getaway, but I stopped him."  
  
The Doctor nodded. "Then what happened?"  
  
"Well, this is where it gets a bit crazy," Jamie told him. "I was about to have it out wi' him, when this woman flew in from the balcony."  
  
"What woman?"  
  
"I don't know, but she grabbed Alistair and started to tear at him. It was horrible." Tears began to well up in Jamie's eyes. "I tried to help him, but she was just too strong. She was all over him like a banshee. And then she . . ." He faltered. "Oh Doctor, it was a terrible thing."  
  
"What was, Jamie?" The Doctor was insistent. "You must tell me."  
  
"She . . . she tore out his heart!" And the tears fell freely, as Jamie turned away, his head buried in a pillow, totally distraught. "She killed him, Doctor. And I couldn't do a thing to help him. She was screaming 'traitor, traitor' as she attacked him."  
  
"And then she just left?" asked the Doctor.  
  
Jamie looked up from his pillow. "Well, yes. but no," he replied.  
  
The Doctor gave Jamie a stern look.  
  
"I tried to stop her. She was clawing and tearing at me but I would not let go. Then she just stopped, kissed me on the forehead and screamed."  
  
The Doctor looked at Jamie with an even more stern expression.  
  
"Then the scream went into a sort of wheezing and groaning sound," he continued.  
  
"A wheezing and groaning sound?" asked the Doctor.  
  
"Yes, that's what I said," replied Jamie.  
  
"Go on," the Doctor prompted.  
  
"Well, then it appeared out of nowhere."  
  
"What appeared?"  
  
"The TARDIS," said Jamie.  
  
"What, our Police Box shaped TARDIS?"  
  
"Yes," Jamie insisted. "The woman looked at me and said, 'Goodbye Jamie', got in the TARDIS and it dematerialised."  
  
"Well, I think that explains what happened to my future self's TARDIS." The Doctor looked down at his friend's bedragged appearance. "Come along, Jamie. I think you'd better go and clean yourself up a bit. Then we need to go and rebuild some bridges."  
  
*****  
  
The Brigadier sat at his desk. The Gendarmes had long since taken Alistair Jnr's body away. It had taken his staff nearly an hour to clean up the mess. But the guilt was still there at the front of his mind. He had told his son to get close to Zzorrann, to pretend to leak information to him and pose as an informer. He had never dreamed it would lead to this.  
  
It had taken him another hour or two to work up the courage to view the security takes of events. He watched Jamie stop Alistair and start arguing with him. He saw the dark shape enter through the window and begin tearing at his son. He watched Jamie try to intervene and he saw the TARDIS arrive.  
  
He watched intently as the shape that had killed his son looked up into the camera lens and smile before it entered the TARDIS and disappeared. He recognised the face from the picture album the little Scottish Doctor had shown him after the Avalon affair. The Brigadier was angry that his son had been killed; he was horrified that he had blamed Jamie and he was determined to get revenge.  
  
*****  
  
The Doctor and a patched up Jamie stood outside the Brigadier's front door. "Are ye sure this is a good idea?" the Scot asked.  
  
"No Jamie, but we have no option," the Doctor replied. "The Brigadier is our only contact on this world and we need him."  
  
The Doctor raised his hand to knock on the door when it suddenly opened before him. There stood the Brigadier with the pain of the recent tragedy drawn across his face. He looked from the Doctor to Jamie. "Jamie, I'm so sorry," he said.  
  
"Oh Alistair," said the Doctor as he reached out to touch his friend on the shoulder.  
  
The Brigadier stiffened and pushed the Doctor's hand away. "Doctor, we have no time for mourning. I have something to tell you. It will probably break every Law of Time you have ever told me about, but you have to know about her."  
  
"About who?" asked the Doctor.  
  
"About Peri."  
  
*****  
  
Queen Perpugilliam leaned on the console of her TARDIS, shaking. Her encounter with Jamie had not been unexpected, but its outcome had brought past memories flooding back. To when she first met him on the space station and their adventure in Seville with their respective Doctors. And a later time, when he was much older. And now, for the first time in untold years, feelings of doubt and uncertainty, emotions long ago buried, now passed through her mind.  
  
'Why am I doing this? How can I justify it? What have I become?'  
  
"No! No, no no!" She clenched her fists tight, desperate to purge herself of these unwelcome reminders of her previous life. "I will not weaken! My resolve must be strong. It must!" Finally, she regained her composure, the trembling becoming less visible.  
  
But the doubts lingered at the back of her mind.  
  
*****  
  
The Doctor could barely take it in. "So this Queen Perpugilliam once travelled with me?"  
  
The Brigadier nodded. "Or will, in the future. Depending on your point of view."  
  
"Quite. But how did your son get involved in all this?" the Doctor wondered.  
  
"Alistair contacted Zzorran through work," Lethbridge Stewart replied. "He worked for him at his bank. As you know, there had been concerns about Zzorrann's business practices, so Alistair volunteered to act as a double- agent. Give them bits and pieces, and obtain information for us in return." The Brigadier shook with emotion. "We both knew there would be risks, but I never expected."  
  
"Aye, well," Jamie muttered. "But why didn't he explain all this to me and the Doctor?"  
  
"Now, be fair, Jamie," the Doctor said. "Alistair barely knew us for a day. He could hardly be expected to take us into his confidence on just his father's say so."  
  
"Exactly, Doctor," the Brigadier noted, recovering. "The less who knew, the better."  
  
"Did he find anything out?"  
  
"Not much." The Brigadier began leafing through various notes. "Although there was something . . . ah, here it is." He read from the document. "Apparently, there was something going on at some research station outside the city. All top secret - the place is run by a Professor Halla."  
  
"Halla?" Jamie and the Brigadier stared at the Doctor. His face was a picture of surprise and shock. "Oh, why didn't I realise?"  
  
"Doctor, do ye know this Professor?" Jamie asked.  
  
"Only by reputation," he replied. "He was the person I had agreed to meet at the Library - oh, it was something arranged a long time ago," he added, forestalling any further questions. "Yes, he's a most eminent scientist, in his field."  
  
The Brigadier didn't like the sound of this. "And which particular field are we talking about, Doctor?"  
  
He hesitated for only a brief moment. "Cybernetics."  
  
*****  
  
Professor Halla had returned to his office and was shuffling through his papers, when the familiar wheezing and groaning noise began to fill the room. He looked up as the shape of a blue Police Box materialised in the centre of his office. The doors opened and the unmistakable shape of the Queen hobbled out. In one had she held a heart and in the other a half decayed head.  
  
Halla indicated for her to place the objects in a large wooden box sitting on his desk. When she had done this he closed the lid and spun the combination lock.  
  
The Queen eased herself down in to a large cushioned sofa close to the large picture window. Halla moved over and sat down beside her. "You need to rest. Your strength is draining away faster than ever," said Halla.  
  
"Only because I have not fed today, and that can easily be resolved." The Queen seemed to relax and she almost seemed human again.  
  
"So all we need is the last head," said Halla.  
  
"Indeed. And if I know the Doctor he should be on his way here very soon. Are you sure it will work if both heads are from the same Time Lord?" asked the Queen.  
  
"I am sure," replied Halla. "In fact the Paradox involved will probably make the device even more powerful."  
  
They both looked at the humanoid shape in the corner of the office. It was like a giant piece of armour standing seven foot up to the shoulders where a space for head to be inserted was visible. Polished until it appeared to be gold, the figure also had a gap in the centre of its chest where a heart could be placed.  
  
"The Duke Zarkahn has arrived," Halla announced.  
  
"Good. The fool is not even aware that he is here for his own funeral. Did he bring enough of the ore to initiate the device?"  
  
"Yes, but he seems a very formidable figure. Are you sure you want to do this?"  
  
"Of course," she smiled. "The device will make a most appropriate wedding gift. With one head, a hybrid heart and the ore from the Duke's mines we only need the final component - the Doctor's living head. Once that is in place and the device is operational he will marry me. And then, shortly afterwards, when Zarkahn succumbs to a strange illness and I inherit his titles and lands as his widow, things will be in place."  
  
Halla nodded.  
  
"With the device, Paris, the Duke's armies, the ore from his Ziton 7 mines and two of the Doctor's TARDISes under my control, everything will finally be in place for the invasion of Gallifrey," the Queen declared with a triumphant smile.  
  
"And then we can get married?" asked Halla.  
  
"Yes, my dear Halla. And the Time Lords will pay for inflicting this vampiric curse upon me when their blood provides the wine at my wedding," she replied, before planting a kiss on Halla's forehead.  
  
A voice from the intercom system interrupted them. "Professor Halla. There is an unidentified shuttle cruiser approaching Ycarnos Station."  
  
"This is Queen Perpugilliam," she announced, taking the call. "Stand down all defences. Allow the cruiser free access to the station." She sat back in her chair, elated. "He comes, Halla. The Doctor is almost here. After all this time, our long wait is at an end."  
  
*****  
  
The cruiser in question was making unsteady progress toward the station. "Doctor, are you sure you can fly this thing?" the Brigadier wondered.  
  
"Of course I can." He seemed surprised that his abilities should be called into question. "I admit, I may have problems with helicopters," Jamie's face paled at the memory, "but I can assure you I have full control over this shuttle."  
  
"This research station," Lethbridge Stewart wondered. "Is that also created by this other TARDIS, like the city?"  
  
"No, I don't think so," the Doctor replied. They were now close enough to make out some detail. "Look at the way it's contructed - oval shaped domes overlapping each other. No, I think we're well outside the TARDIS force field now."  
  
"It's awful quiet," Jamie observed. "As if they're expecting us."  
  
The Doctor's face was grim. "Yes, I'd noticed that too, Jamie. Ah." One of the domes opened out to reveal a vacant launch bay. "I rather think that's for us."  
  
The Doctor steered the shuttle toward the bay. "I do wish you had stayed behind, Brigadier," he added. "I would have been much happier not to involve you."  
  
"Not a chance, Doctor," the Brigadier insisted. "I have one or two scores to settle."  
  
The three friends were silent for the rest of the flight.  
  
*****  
  
Once the shuttle had landed, they had progressed some distance into the station with no hint of trouble. "You do realise," Lethbridge Stewart noted, "that we're probably walking into a trap?"  
  
"Oh, I'm fully expecting it," the Doctor replied. "I would have been disappointed if that wasn't the case."  
  
"Then let us dissappoint you no longer, Doctor." They turned to find a lizard of mixed race beckoning them onwards.  
  
"Ah," the Doctor surmised. "Mr Zzorrann, I presume. I wondered when we would meet."  
  
"You do me a great honour, Doctor," Zzorrann complimented. "However, I fear that our meeting will soon be cut short - literally."  
  
"I take it that Queen Perpugilliam is expecting us?"  
  
"No, I literally mean you will be cut short," replied Zzorrann.  
  
Jamie and the Brigadier were grabbed from behind by lizard guards and watched the next few moments in increasing horror.  
  
A giant lizard emerged from behind some crates and was followed by even more guards. A human in a white lab coat and carrying a large silver box followed behind them. The big lizard drew a massive sword as long as Jamie was tall and spun it around his head. Then with a sudden and swift motion he swung it towards the Doctor and then back in to its sheath.  
  
The Brigadier and Jamie looked on in horror as the Doctor's head fell from his shoulders and hit the ground with a thud. A second later his limp body fell into the dust before their feet.  
  
To be continued . . . 


	9. A Time To Die

A TIME TO DIE  
  
Professor Halla paced up and down in his lab, sneaking glances at the Doctor's headless body as it lay on a mortuary slab. A small bleeping object was protruding from the wound where the head had been severed.  
  
Halla did a final check to make sure the small object was operational and then he picked up the silver box and headed to his office. As an afterthought, he elected to have the Doctor's body delivered there too. Best to keep them both together, he decided.  
  
He carried the box through the long winding corridors of the research station making sure he did not disturb the contents. Once inside his office he placed the box down on his desk.  
  
He moved over to the large armour like device. Alistair Jnr's heart had been inserted and was now beating regularly. He ran his fingers over the device and made sure everything was in order. He then moved over to a small control console, which bleeped and whined as small lights flickered across its surface. A glass column in the centre of the console contained the rotted head that the Queen had brought with Alistair Jnr's heart.  
  
Halla than moved back to the silver box, opened the lid and looked inside. He looked down at the Doctor's head as it sat in the box, a silver collar attached at the neck where it had been severed. Halla let out a sigh of regret and reached down to pick up the head.  
  
Suddenly the Doctor's eyes opened. "Oh my Giddy Aunt, where am I?" he asked. He looked up. "Professor Halla, isn't it? You don't keep your appointments, do you?"  
  
Halla recovered from his momentary surprise. "Ah, Doctor. I'm glad to see the collar is working perfectly."  
  
"Collar?" He looked down as far as was possible. "Oh, I see." Then he realised. "What the . . . What have you done to me? Where's the rest of me?"  
  
"Don't worry, Doctor," Halla assured him. "Your body is still in perfect health. Just over there."  
  
The Doctor's eyes peered over the rim of the box. "Preserved by another collar?"  
  
"Something similar, yes."  
  
"Then put me back together at once," the Doctor protested. "I refuse to be treated in this way."  
  
Halla sighed. "I regret that you have little choice in the matter, Doctor. My Queen has decreed that you will serve an altogether different purpose." He indicated the seven-foot figure before him.  
  
"Oh, I see," the Doctor gently taunted. "She snaps her fingers and you follow like a lap dog."  
  
"It's nothing of the sort," Halla declared. "We share a common goal. And once that goal is achieved, we are to be married."  
  
"Yes, they all say that," the Doctor observed. "Never works out, of course."  
  
Halla could hardly believe what was happening. Despite his obvious predicament, it felt as though the Doctor was in charge of things, rather than himself. "Doctor, you're not making this easy for yourself."  
  
"Oh, was I supposed to? Sorry about that, Halla old chap. You just go ahead and make the biggest mistake of your life." The Doctor sniffed. "I certainly can't stop you."  
  
*****  
  
The Brigadier and Jamie sat disconsolately in their cell. "I canna believe it," Jamie moaned. "The Doctor – dead."  
  
"I can hardly believe it myself," Lethbridge Stewart agreed. "And yet that Professor Halla told us he needed the Doctor alive. Did you see that collar he put around his neck after . . . well, immediately afterwards?"  
  
"Aye," Jamie replied. "But how can a collar keep someone alive?"  
  
"I don't know, Jamie. But for now, we have to assume that he is. And we've got to get out of here."  
  
They stood up as the door to the cell suddenly opened. Framed in the doorway was Queen Perpugilliam. "Oh, the Doctor is alive," she announced. "But I doubt he will remain so for very much longer."  
  
The Brigadier glared at her. "You!" he spat. "You're responsible for all those deaths."  
  
She smiled. "How true. But I needed to feed, so their deaths served a purpose."  
  
"And you also killed my son!"  
  
The smile faltered. "That was . . . necessary. He was a traitor to our cause." She took in their looks of horror, from the Brigadier to Jamie.  
  
Jamie – for some reason she could not tear herself away from his gaze. And it was not for the desire to feed. It was . . . something else. Something she could not identify. With an effort she turned back to the Brigadier. "However, as there were blood ties, it seems only fair that you should join your son in death. And I must feed."  
  
Lethbridge Stewart stepped back. "Jamie, when I say run . . ."  
  
"No, not this time, Brigadier." Jamie leaped forward, barring the Queen's path. "Why don't you take a bite out of me instead?" he suggested.  
  
The Brigadier couldn't believe it. "McCrimmon, don't be a fool!"  
  
The Queen laughed. "It matters not. I shall still feed." She reached out for him, and then unexpectedly shrank back. "What is this? What prevents me from feeding?"  
  
"I'm sure I don't know," Jamie replied innocently. "Why not try again?"  
  
"If you insist." Again the Queen bared her fangs, ready to pounce. But again something held her back. She stared at Jamie, angry and confused.  
  
The Brigadier shared her confusion. "I don't understand this at all." Then he realised. Somewhere inside the Queen had to be remnants of her previous life as Peri Brown. As such she recognised Jamie and felt unable to attack him. No doubt the Doctor would have some scientific name for it. However . . .  
  
Jamie had noted the Queen's wariness when she had faced him before. Now he kept his eye on her, veering this way and that, blocking her path to the Brigadier. It was a risk, but he had to try. For her part, Perpugilliam began to experience an uncertainty within her. "I cannot . . . I can't think straight. I mustn't . . . I must not weaken."  
  
"Peri?" Jamie called, recalling the name Lethbridge Stewart had mentioned. "Is that Peri in there?"  
  
The Queen shot him a venomous look. "Peri Brown no longer exists. She . . . I . . . I'm here, Jamie. I can't . . . cannot focus."  
  
"Peri, concentrate." Jamie had to play this carefully. One false move . . . "Peri, we need you."  
  
The Queen wavered, uncertain what to do next. Jamie and the Brigadier took advantage of the situation and charged past her into the corridors of the research station.  
  
******  
  
Professor Halla looked up at his handiwork. The Doctor's head had been attached to the large 7-foot tall device. Exasperated by the Doctor's continuous chatter Halla had taped over his mouth. Now all the Time Lord could do was glare at his captor.  
  
Halla was becoming concerned. Try as he might he could not get the head in the glass column to respond as expected. Not only was it a Time Lord head but it was also the head of the Doctor's own future corpse. What was strange was that there was no sign on the readings of a temporal paradox that would arise in this situation. What was even stranger was that the head was not responding like a Time Lord head at all. In fact it seemed in every way to be human.  
  
*****  
  
Jamie and the Brigadier continued to run up and down the corridors of the station. After a moment the Brigadier called to Jamie and said that being an old man he needed a rest. The two of them took a breather and looked around them.  
  
The Brigadier then caught sight of something very familiar in a small room off the corridor they were in. He tapped Jamie on the shoulder and pointed for him to look that way. The two men entered the room.  
  
"The TARDIS. Two of them," said Jamie.  
  
"Yes. One is obviously the one the future Doctor brought here centuries ago and the other is yours, which they must have had delivered from Paris," the Brigadier noted.  
  
"Well, know we know where the TARDIS is. We still need to find the Doctor." The young Scot turned to leave the room, but the Brigadier was standing still, pondering the TARDIS. As though he were drawn to it.  
  
"C'mon Brigadier. We've got to save the Doctor."  
  
Lethbridge Stewart turned to look at the younger man. "Jamie, I am going to have to ask you to do something for me. It may seem like I'm abandoning you both, but you trust me don't you?" Jamie nodded. "I'm going to have to leave it to you to save the Doctor. I know you can do it," he added encouragingly.  
  
"What are ye gonna do?" asked Jamie.  
  
"You could say I have an appointment to keep on the Doctor's behalf. Can you give me your key to the TARDIS?"  
  
Jamie fumbled about in his sporran and took out the key and passed it to the Brigadier. The key was duly inserted in the lock. "Goodbye, Jamie. Give the Doctor my respects," He turned the key and entered the TARDIS.  
  
Jamie waited and watched the ship dematerialise before he resumed his search for the Doctor.  
  
******  
  
Halla could not work it out. Why would the head not respond as expected? He hunched forward and looked more closely at the head and noticed something he had not seen before.  
  
******  
  
The Brigadier stood and watched the time rotor rise and fall in the centre of the TARDIS console. He had never really understood how the thing worked, but by being observant on the couple of occasions he had travelled in the old girl he had picked up enough to move the ship a few miles and back a couple of hundred years. Which in the end was all he needed to do.  
  
There was then the unmistakable thud of the TARDIS landing. The Brigadier opened the doors and stepped out. He was in a clearing at the centre of a lizard village. He looked around him at the simple brick buildings. It looked exactly like the old drawings he had seen of Paris before it had been developed. A couple of inquisitive lizards moved towards him.  
  
The Brigadier's plan was about to be set in motion but there was one more thing he had to do to get it going. He began to speak.  
  
"Good morning. I am the Doctor and I have come here to die."  
  
******  
  
Halla could have kicked himself. When he had looked closely at the head for the first time he had noticed the faint traces of a grey beard. Then he had begun to notice something familiar in the remnants of the decayed head's features. To resolve the matter he had pulled some DNA files for Paris's records and compared them with the head.  
  
This had proved the matter once and for all. The head that the lizards had for centuries worshiped as that of the Doctor was in fact the head of the Brigadier.  
  
The Queen's plans were in tatters and she would not be happy.  
  
"Halla!" He spun round. Queen Perpugilliam hobbled into the room, Zzorrann close behind. For all his concerns, the Professor noted that the Queen was not as self-assured as he had known her. "Halla, what is happening? The transference should have been completed by now."  
  
He would do himself no favours by lying. "I regret, my Queen, that we have all been deceived." He indicated the decayed head. "This is not the head of the Doctor."  
  
"What!" She moved closer, examining the head as Halla had done a few moments before. She stared, recognising the face. "And I thought the Doctor was the one to be wary of. It seems I did the Brigadier an injustice."  
  
Zzorrann realised what his mother was saying. "It must be a trick."  
  
She shook her head. "No trick, my son. By his sacrifice, the Brigadier has dealt our cause a mortal blow." Then she looked up at the Doctor, his mouth still taped. "But I shall still have a victory of sorts." Fangs bared, she prepared to spring at him.  
  
"No, Peri!"  
  
The Queen turned at the sound of Jamie's voice. The highlander had rescued a sword from a recently felled guard, and now held the blade across Zzorrann's throat. "Peri, if our friendship means anything, then you must not harm the Doctor."  
  
She stared at him, her expression unreadable. Finally she backed down. "I never realised how strong a bond friendship could be," she whispered. "Very well, Jamie. You have my word the Doctor will not be harmed."  
  
Zzorrann struggled against Jamie's grip, but could not move. "You dare speak to my mother so?"  
  
"Aye, I dare," Jamie replied. "And I'll thank ye to keep your opinions to yourself, unless you prefer to have your throat cut." Zzorrann ceased his struggling. "That's better." He turned to Halla. "You there."  
  
Halla was stunned. "Me?"  
  
"Aye. Close the door here, and lock it."  
  
Halla looked to the Queen for advice. She nodded. "Do as he asks." The Professor pressed a nearby switch, and a steel shutter operated, sealing the room.  
  
The Queen looked at Jamie. "So, here we are, in a locked room. What can you hope to achieve?"  
  
"I'll worry about that later," he replied. "Right now, I want the Doctor put back together."  
  
Halla protested. "Reverse the procedure? But it's never been done before."  
  
"Mebbe so," the Scot agreed. "But you took him apart. So I think that makes you the one to set things right."  
  
"Mother!" Zzorrann pleaded, risking his neck. "You surely cannot agree to this?"  
  
"Oh, shut the heck up!" She yelled. "I mean . . ." Perpugilliam composed herself, embarrassed at her faux pas. "Halla, do as Jamie asks. We will deal with the consequences at a later time."  
  
******  
  
Although he had been a silent observer, the Doctor had been watching events unfold. He had gathered that the two heads, of which he had been one, had been designed to work together as some form of relay to control the huge body his head had been grafted on to. The only reason for using two Time Lord heads would be to make the device able to independently negotiate the time vortex. With this time travelling super soldier, two TARDISes and an army of lizards it was clear that the Queen had been planning some form of temporal military operation.  
  
Since the Doctor had been attached to the body, he had explored the connections between it and himself. He had learnt that it was a very unique mechanism that would be able to punch through the transduction barriers at the Galifreyan Capitol and would have been able to resist any attempt by the Time Lords to blip it out of existence. It was now clear to the Doctor what the Queen's plans had been.  
  
The Doctor had also been pondering Peri. The Brigadier had said that she was one of his own future companions and she certainly knew Jamie and himself in his current incarnation. There were two possibilities - either he and Jamie would meet his future self and Peri sometime in their own future, or they already have met them and somehow the Laws of Time were preventing them from remembering it. In the end, the time line was in this instance irrelevant. His priority was to get himself put back together.  
  
The Doctor had watched Halla's realisation about the other head with some amusement. He had known immediately that it was not his own head. A Time Lord could tell that sort of thing straight away. He had kept quiet because he knew it would throw a spanner in the works. He had however, with some sadness, also realised at the same time as Halla, the real identity of the other head.  
  
But the Doctor kept his mind focused and was now sure he had fully explored the links with the robotic body. There was something that was bothering him and now he could act.  
  
******  
  
The standoff in Halla's office continued as the professor tried to persuade Jamie that, although he had specifically tried to maintain the viability of the Doctor's discarded body, reconnecting the head to it was not possible.  
  
There was a moment of angry silence between all the parties when they all heard a strange creaking from the corner of the room. They all looked in the direction of the sound.  
  
The robot body to which the Doctor's head was attached was moving. It was in fact scratching the end of the Doctor's nose and then it tore the tape from his mouth. "Oh, thank goodness for that. That itch has been bothering me for ages," he said, relieved.  
  
"Doctor, are you alright?" exclaimed Jamie.  
  
"Well, I am feeling a bit light in the head, but other than that I can't complain." The Doctor was now at one with the robot body and could move it as if it was his own. He took a few steps towards Jamie.  
  
"I say, Jamie. You seem a lot shorter than I remember," he said with a smile. "Now Professor, I would be grateful if you could please put me back together. If you are not sure how to do it, I would be delighted to offer a helping hand."  
  
*****  
  
Guilliam and Herzz stood beside each other, not entirely sure if what they had proposed would work or lead them both to their deaths.  
  
"So, let me get this right," said the Duke Zarkahn 's interpreter. "You both propose that the Council of Paris promise their allegiance to my Master in return for him ridding the city of the influence of the Queen and her son?"  
  
Guilliam and Herzz nodded.  
  
The interpreter briefly consulted with the Duke who sat on a large guilt throne and fiddled with the skull that hung around his neck. Zarkahn nodded.  
  
"His Grace has agreed," the interpreter confirmed. "Now you must return to Paris and put things in place. The Duke's soldiers will deal with the Queen and everyone else on this base. Everyone will be dead within the hour."  
  
Guilliam and Herzz smiled and bowed before leaving. Outside Zarkahn 's quarters they took a moment to catch their breath, assured that with the Duke's help the Council would be free, under his protection, to run their city's affairs themselves.  
  
******  
  
The interpreter watched Guilliam and Herzz leave the room and then turned back to his master.  
  
"My Lord, I will order the guards to eliminate the Queen and everyone else immediately. Oh, and may I say what a masterstroke it was to come to that agreement with the Paris Council. Although they might not have been so accommodating if you had told them about your plans to cull the human and half-breed population of the city."  
  
The Duke smiled his lizardy smile.  
  
To be continued . . . 


	10. Twists and Turns

TWISTS AND TURNS  
  
Jamie watched intently as the operation was carried out. Halla's hands moved expertly across the Doctor's neck, connecting the various synaptic nerves and veins, as well as equalling the blood supply to the head and body. Finally, a laser scalpel fused the flesh and skin from the original cut. "Is that it?" Jamie asked. "Is he alright?"  
  
Halla mopped his brow. "Well, it's the first time I've ever performed such an operation, but . . ."  
  
"But I think he did rather well." The Doctor sat up, twisting his head one way, then another. Apparently satisfied, he jumped down off the operating table. "Splendid, Professor," he congratulated. "A first rate job."  
  
"Oh, you were a great help," Halla blushed. "Credit where credit's due."  
  
Jamie was elated, then remembered he still had Zzorrann as a prisoner. "So, what happens now, Doctor?"  
  
"What indeed?" The Doctor regarded the Queen thoughtfully. "Perhaps I can offer you something in return."  
  
Perpugilliam was curious. "Such as?"  
  
"Well, for someone who hasn't fed for a long while, you seem remarkably healthy." He turned to Halla. "Professor, can you do a physical examination on Queen Perpugilliam?"  
  
Halla had the necessary equipment ready. "With your permission, your highness?" She nodded.  
  
Jamie couldn't fathom this out. "Doctor, what are ye playing at?"  
  
"Just a theory, Jamie," he replied. "Oh, and I think you can drop that sword. I don't think Mr Zzorrann has any intention of causing any trouble, do you?"  
  
Zzorrann shook his head, as Jamie let the sword fall. Though he still kept a hold on it – just in case.  
  
Stepping away from Zzorrann, Jamie drew the Doctor to one side, out of earshot from the others. "Doctor, the Brigadier . . ."  
  
"Yes, I know," he whispered. "Well, I'd had my suspicions, at any rate."  
  
"D'ye think he did the right thing, though?"  
  
The Doctor shrugged. "Only the Brigadier has the answer to that one. But if he was part of the original timeline . . ." He let the subject drop, noting that Halla had completed his examination. "Well, Professor?"  
  
"It's extraordinary," he gasped. "Cellular repair - in its early stages, admittedly. But if I were to give a long term diagnosis, I would say that the mutated organs are being overcome by her human physiognomy."  
  
Perpugilliam realised the importance of that statement. "Do you mean . . .?"  
  
"Yes!" The Doctor was almost jumping up and down with excitement. "Your original changes in bodily strength were as a result of the pregnancy, it's true. But had your physicians of the time fully understood the condition, they should have realised that it would have only been a temporary aberration."  
  
"But later, when my need for blood had to be addressed . . ."  
  
It was Halla who supplied the answer. "I think the initial need was genuine," he supposed. "But if the Doctor is right, the increase in your strength led to a deficiency in blood cells, which at the time needed to be replenished. But my tests now confirm that your blood count is normal, and has remained so for some time. I had noticed earlier," he added, "that you now looked more human than before."  
  
"It's like someone becoming addicted to a drug," the Doctor reasoned. "As one becomes dependant on the need for more, that dependence sometimes overrides the power of reasoning, allowing the baser instincts to surface. Tell me," he asked her. "Is the need still there?"  
  
She searched within herself, and realised the truth. "No," she answered. "No, it's completely gone." Then she laughed. "Kinda like cold turkey, huh?"  
  
Everyone in the room was stunned by this outburst. Then they joined in the laughter.  
  
It was Zzorrann who called for silence. "I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I am not sure I like the look of this." He pointed to a radar screen, where a series of blips were clearly displayed.  
  
"I take it you're not expecting visitors?" the Doctor asked Perpugilliam.  
  
"No." She shook her head. Then she remembered. "Oh no. Duke Zarkahn. He's still here!"  
  
"Oh, your husband to be, or not, as the case would have been," the Doctor recalled. "Can't we appeal to his better nature?"  
  
"He doesn't have one, Doctor," she replied.  
  
He noted how Perpugilliam's speech patterns were subtly altering, becoming more contracted and relaxed. Halla had also observed the change. "Where will this Zarkahn be now?" the Doctor asked.  
  
"In his quarters, I would imagine," Zzorrann answered. "Our security monitors will confirm it." They crossed to a bank of screens, their cameras covering the whole of the station. Zzorrann pointed to the nearest screen. "There." Clearly shown were the Duke and his interpreter.  
  
But the Doctor was drawn to another screen, and two men. One human, the other lizard, walking down a corridor. "Wait a moment. I remember those two."  
  
Zzorrann stared. "Guilliam and Herzz. What are they doing here? I didn't even know they were on the station."  
  
"Well, if you didn't know . . ." The Doctor paused. "Oh dear," he realised. "I rather think they may have done a deal with Zarkahn." He suddenly turned back to the screens, seeing something else. "Do you notice anything strange about the images on these security monitors?"  
  
They all looked at the screens but said nothing.  
  
"They're on a loop. These images are recordings being fed back in to the system," he explained.  
  
"So you mean that the Duke is not in his quarters?" Halla asked.  
  
"No, indeed I am not," said the Duke as entered the lab.  
  
Suddenly a dozen of the Duke's soldiers entered the room and surrounded the small group. Each of the soldiers trained a rifle on the captives.  
  
"I would not normally pollute my lips with your vermin language," said the Duke. "But on this occasion I think it will add to my pleasure to communicate my intent to you with my own words."  
  
"W - what exactly are your plans?" asked the Doctor as he hid behind Jamie.  
  
The Duke moved over to the Doctor and smacked him across the back of his head. The Time Lord fell to the ground, unconscious. The Duke looked down at him. "Did I give you permission to speak?"  
  
Jamie was about to open his mouth and protest but Halla pushed himself in between the Scot and the lizard. "Your Grace, please listen to us. The plan is still intact," he insisted.  
  
The Duke leant forward and bit off Halla's head and spat it into the corner of the lab. "Yes Professor, but you are not," he observed.  
  
The giant lizard gave some orders to his guards and moved over to Peri. He gave a mocking bow. "Your Majesty, I admit your plan did briefly hold some attraction for me. The idea of an interplanetary Empire was rather appealing. However, I am humble enough to satisfy myself with the city of Paris – and, thanks to my allies, the opportunity of purifying this planet of all the human filth that live within its city walls."  
  
Then the Duke left the room as his guards brought a large glass globe into the lab and placed it before the group. Then as swiftly as they had entered all the lizards left, locking the door to the lab behind them.  
  
Jamie ran up to the door and tried to open it but it was no use. He turned around and saw Peri holding Halla's head. He had no idea what she was up to so he went to check on the Doctor.  
  
"Oh, Jamie. My head won't stand much more of this" said the Doctor as he slowly came too.  
  
Jamie saw the look of horror on the Doctor's face, as he saw something behind the Scot. "Oh, my word."  
  
"What is it, Doctor?"  
  
The Doctor pointed and Jamie saw. The glass globe that the lizards had brought into the room was beginning to grow. The lab was very big, but the globe was growing so fast that it would soon fill the room.  
  
"Look at the size of that thing, Doctor," said Jamie.  
  
"Yes Jamie, it is a big one," he replied.  
  
"Never mind that," Peri yelled. "Help me with him." Peri had Halla's head in her hands, trying to fasten the same collar that had preserved the Doctor's life. "I can't find the catch."  
  
"Let me try." The Doctor took the collar from Peri and quickly fastened it around Halla's neck. Then he grabbed the smaller device which had protected his body. Once that had been fitted, the Doctor sat back on his haunches, breathing hard. It would be a moment before he knew if he had been successful. "You really do care for him, don't you?" he asked her.  
  
She nodded. "At first he was a divergence from all the hate and anger inside me," she admitted. "But I came to love him, yes. And I won't let him die."  
  
"It's a good job I'm still here then." Halla looked up at Peri, then to the Doctor. "I take it . . ."  
  
"Yes, I'm afraid the roles have been reversed," the Doctor replied. "You're the patient this time."  
  
"Never mind that," Jamie reminded him. "What about this globe thing?"  
  
"Yes, I hadn't forgotten." The Doctor rummaged in his pockets for something. "Unless I'm very much mistaken, that globe is meant to blow us all to kingdom come."  
  
"So what can you do?" Peri asked.  
  
"Well, it should be here – ah ha!" From his pocket, the Doctor pulled out a hand-held device.  
  
Peri recognised it at once. "A Stattenheim remote control!"  
  
The Doctor was taken aback. "Oh, you've seen one."  
  
She shrugged. "Only once before."  
  
The globe was expanding ever larger. "Doctor!" Jamie warned.  
  
"It's alright, Jamie." The Doctor put two fingers in his mouth and whistled a shrill note. In the next second, the sound of materialisation filled the room as the TARDIS appeared before them. "Right, you wait here," he ordered. "I shan't be long." With that, he leaped into the TARDIS, closing the door behind him.  
  
Jamie, Peri and Halla watched as the TARDIS vanished from sight, and then began to reappear in the exact spot where the globe was. "He's trying to fit the TARDIS around the globe," Jamie realised.  
  
Sure enough, once materialisation had been completed, the globe was nowhere to be seen. Then the door opened and the Doctor poked his head through the gap. "Peri, those blips on the radar we saw – where do they converge?"  
  
"The Duke's allies, of course!" She looked up at the screen. "Unless I miss my guess," she replied, "they look to be in orbit around Aerht's moon."  
  
He nodded. "Well, I'd better hurry before this thing goes off. Thank you." He slipped back inside the TARDIS and the ship immediately disappeared from view.  
  
"What happens now?" Jamie wondered. "Are we safe?"  
  
"We are," came Halla's reply. "But if the Doctor's planning what I think he is, he'd better be quick about it." They stared at the empty space, hoping against hope.  
  
*****  
  
The Doctor piloted the TARDIS toward a war fleet strike force, in orbit around the moon, just as Peri had predicted. "Ah, there they are. Now, this is the tricky bit . . ."  
  
Inside one of the ship's largest rooms, the globe continued to expand. But even the TARDIS couldn't hope to contain the growing mass of explosive charge indefinitely.  
  
******  
  
Peri was sitting on a bench holding on to Halla's head and talking to him trying to keep his mind off the horror of his situation. Jamie and Zzorrann stood together discussing how they could unlock to door to the lab. There was a small sizzling sound followed by a small bang from Halla's headless body. The all turned to look and Halla asked Peri to take him closer.  
  
"Oh no!" exclaimed Halla.  
  
"What is it?" asked Zzorrann.  
  
"The device the Doctor inserted in to my body has blown out." They all looked at the device protruding from the open neck of Halla's body. All the small lights on it had gone out and it had fallen silent. They all looked at Halla to see his reaction.  
  
"Oh well, that looks like it then," he sighed.  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Zzorrann.  
  
"Well, that device keeps the body viable for transplants," Halla explained, "but without it the cellular decay will set in and it will be unretreavable."  
  
"Which would mean that we won't be able to put you back together?" said Jamie.  
  
Halla tried to nod but realised he couldn't.  
  
Peri was distraught. "There must be something else we can do. Do you have another device, and how long have we got?"  
  
"Yes, I do have another one, but it's in my office and we are locked in this lab," he replied. "So unless we can get out and insert the other device within the next five minutes, then it's all over."  
  
"I have an Idea," said Peri.  
  
The former Queen ran over to the discarded robot body that the Doctor's head had previously been attached to. Then with lightening speed, powered by the remainder of her powers, she started attaching Halla's head to it.  
  
As the designer of the body, Halla was quickly in control of it and was soon moving about.  
  
"Well, he has mobility, but we are still no nearer to saving his body," said Zzorrann.  
  
"Oh yes we are," Halla reminded him. "This body was designed for combat." As if to illustrate the point, he marched over to the locked lab door and with his powerful robot arms ripped it off its hinges.  
  
"Come on," said Peri. "We've got work to do." She charged out of the door with the others in hot pursuit.  
  
******  
  
The Doctor was running around the console trying to calculate the co- ordinates exactly when a horrifying though crossed his mind. The Duke was part of medieval society and Paris, although advanced, had only just succeeded in its first launch of the Eiffel Tower like rocket. So how on earth could the Duke have got hold of such an obviously impressive space fleet?  
  
The Doctor stopped what he was doing and moved closer to the scanner. The lizards had been using the old TARDIS and had been regularly visited by other aliens but had never developed their own independent form of space flight. That had been the purpose of the Eiffel Tower launches. Was it possible that Paris's first steps into conventional space exploration would have drawn attention from another alien species?  
  
The Doctor began to speculate. Guilliam and Herzz had obviously been conducting secret negotiations with the Duke for some time. So what if they had given the Duke information about the city's space project. The threat of this would have worried the Duke and he may have made contact with other species to steal a march on the Parisians.  
  
The Doctor again looked more closely at the ships and bit his lip when her recognised their insignia. They were ships of the Earth Empire and all the people on board them would be human. Suddenly the Doctor lost heart in his plan to blow up the fleet. "Oh, what am I going to do?" he moaned. "I still have this bomb on board – unless . . ."  
  
Quickly he activated the speaker system. "Hello, hello. This is the Doctor calling the Earth Empire fleet. Can anyone hear me?"  
  
A burst of static burst through the speakers, then resolved itself. "This is Commander Travers of the Earth Empire. To whom am I speaking to?"  
  
"Oh thank heavens," the Doctor breathed. "Who I am isn't important right now. What is important is that I have an expanding bomb on my ship, courtesy of the Duke Zarkahn and his unsavoury friends. And I don't know how to diffuse it!"  
  
*****  
  
Professor Halla quickly found what he was looking for. "Got it!" he declared. "But someone else will have to attach it. This robotic body isn't designed for delicate tasks."  
  
"I'll do it," Peri volunteered. "I saw how the Doctor attached the first one, and you can guide me." As they all hurried out of the lab, Jamie briefly wondered what was taking the Doctor so long. Surely the bomb must have exploded by now?  
  
*****  
  
The same thought had occurred to the Duke Zarkahn and his interpreter, who had retreated to the dark plains at a safe distance from Ycarnos Station. "What has gone wrong?" he growled. "That building should be a pile of dust by now."  
  
He was diverted from his ranting by the sound of a lone Earth Empire warship coming in to land close by. The Duke was disturbed. This had not been part of the plan.  
  
He approached the craft as a side hatch opened, revealing its pilot who the Duke recognised. "Commander Travers," the interpreter declared. "You were not expected."  
  
"Obviously not," the Commander replied, as he stepped onto the surface. "I believe this is yours, Zarkahn." He held out the globe, which had now been rendered safe and very much reduced in size.  
  
The Duke was stunned. "How did . . .?" Then he saw the scruffy individual from the station, beaming happily.  
  
"The Doctor has been filling me in on your ambitious plans for this world," Travers explained. "I think you had better come with me." Any violent thoughts Zarkahn may have had were tempered by the sight of Earth Empire troops filing out of the warship, their weapons raised in his direction.  
  
The Doctor smiled as the Duke and his interpreter were led away. "I do apologise, gentlemen," he said. "But I'm afraid the party's over for you."  
  
*****  
  
It was some time later, after the Doctor had returned to the station, that experiences were shared and explanations given. Halla, his head now returned to his own body, had told of the troubles they had faced while the Doctor had been gone, with contributions from Peri, Jamie and Zzorrann. While the Doctor explained the full extent of Zarkahn's plans and his agreed deal with Guillam and Herzz. "And if Commander Travers' team hadn't known how to dismantle that bomb," he told them, "well, I wouldn't be here now."  
  
Zzorrann shook his head. "I can still hardly believe it of Guillam and Herzz," he said. "Why would they go to such lengths?"  
  
"Perhaps they felt the current regime was in need of a change."  
  
The Doctor's words were not lost on Zzorrann. "I have to confess, I overheard your conversation with them at the Chambers," he admitted. "At the time, I did not think your suggestions of democracy and free will were of great merit." He paused. "But after the events of today, I can see that my thoughts were misplaced."  
  
He regarded him thoughtfully. "You are a curious man, Doctor. I had thought you to be evil, yet you saved my mother from herself. For this, I am forever in your debt."  
  
"Just remember," the Doctor told him. "Nothing is always so clearly defined. There is no obvious black and white to every situation." Zzorrann nodded in agreement.  
  
The Doctor turned to Peri. "And what about you, Perpugilliam of the Brown?"  
  
"Oh, please," she begged. "Just Peri will do. Now and forever." She smiled at him. "I guess I owe you my life, Doctor. Halla tells me that one aspect of my feeding made me pretty delusional. So my hatred for you was due to that."  
  
"And now?"  
  
"Now, I'm getting back to normal. Mentally and physically. Look." She bared an arm – much of the deformities were now diminishing at a great rate. "So I should be fine. And," she announced, "I'm gonna get married." She reached out to Halla, and he took her hand.  
  
The Doctor smiled, sensing the love between them. "I'm very pleased for you both."  
  
Jamie piped up. "There's still something I don't understand."  
  
"Oh yes? And what might that be?"  
  
"Well, this version of Paris. What happens to the city now? Will it survive without the TARDIS?"  
  
"Oh, I see what you mean." The Doctor searched inside his many pockets. "As things stand now, the city will probably be experiencing some minimal form of decay. But there is a possible solution." From his pockets he drew out what Jamie would consider a small technological marvel. "This device is similar to the dimensional stabiliser which regulates the TARDIS's internal dimensions, and is quite capable of helping to maintain the illusion of Paris 1902. The question is, do you really want it?" He laid the device before them. "You must all consider – are you prepared to let the decay go on, or will you go back to the fantasy with the aid of the stabiliser?"  
  
Peri understood what such a choice would mean to the people. It was not a decision to be taken lightly. "We'll certainly give it a lot of thought," she promised, her arms embracing both Halla and Zzorrann.  
  
Jamie was feeling restless. "So, is that it, Doctor? Are we away back to the TARDIS now?"  
  
The Doctor appreciated Jamie's eagerness - to move on to new adventures, exploring unknown galaxies. It was something which they both shared. But not quite yet. Before they left Aerht to its new future, there was one important duty left to perform.  
  
To be concluded . . . 


	11. Epilogue

EPILOGUE  
  
As befitting an officer, the remains of the Brigadier had been buried with due ceremony, with Alistair Jnr laid beside him. The service had been well attended, an indication of the high regard Lethbridge Stewart had been held in over the years. Now, only the Doctor and Jamie were left at the graveside. "He was a very brave man, Jamie."  
  
"Aye, we'll not see his like again."  
  
"Oh, I don't know about that," the Doctor speculated. "After all, time is relative. Within this universe, there are infinite possibilities of which we can only dream."  
  
*****  
  
Two hundred years previously, a local hostelry was playing host to the Brigadier, as he regaled the regulars with stories of his (supposed) travels through time and space.  
  
Later that evening, he sat down drinking a pint of the local ale. An acquired taste, but not unpleasant. He raised his glass in a silent salute. "Good luck to you, Doctor," he whispered. "Wherever you are."  
  
And finally . . .  
  
FROM THE AUTHORS – A QUESTION OF CONTINUITY  
  
When we were halfway through writing The Lizards of the Rue Morgue, the age- old problem of continuity came up, on the question of 'why didn't the Doctor and Jamie recognise Peri from The Two Doctors?' In the terms of the story we decided to leave the issue open, but in order to avoid a potential minefield, this brief explanation may help ward off any complaints. So, here goes . . .  
  
Working on the premise that, for the Doctor, "The Two Doctors" happened after "The War Games", it follows that:-  
  
1) Yes, this is the second time the Doctor has met the Brig from his point of view.  
  
2) That the events of this story take place at the end of "Fury from the Deep" and therefore before "The Invasion", "The Two Doctors" and "The War Games".  
  
So the continuity works like this (deep breath).  
  
1) The Web of Fear (Doctor Jamie and Victoria meet the Brig for the first time).  
  
2) Fury from the Deep. (Victoria leaves the Doctor and Jamie).  
  
3) The Lizards of the Rue Morgue. (After parting with Victoria, the Doctor and Jamie arrive in our story).  
  
4) Invasion (The Doctor and Jamie meet the Brig again, but must not let on to him that they have met his future self on the Lizard Planet).  
  
5) The War Games (Jamie has never heard of the Time Lords before and the Doctor is on the run from them when he is captured).  
  
6) The Two Doctors (Jamie is back with the Doctor. Both are visibly older and Jamie now knows exactly who the Time Lords are. The Doctor is running errands for them, and his TARDIS - and this is explicitly stated in the script - is under the Time Lords' control. Combined with the fact that we never see the second Doctor regenerate into the third, this proves that after The War Games the second Doctor was sent on various missions by the Time Lords and reunited with Jamie. Sometime later his exile and regeneration did happen. It's in this time period that The Two Doctors takes place).  
  
And I hope that clears that up! 


End file.
